Documents & Drawings

A scroll unrolled from its leather case, ink dark against old skin. Antique documents and drawings are written and painted records from many traditions: Coptic prayer scrolls and bibles in Ge’ez script from Ethiopia, made as protective talismans and kept rolled in leather cases; folding fortune teller’s books from Burma, painted on paper and lacquered cloth; Pat story scrolls of the Santhal people of eastern India; a Balinese cosmological diagram from Klungkung; Taoist manuscripts of the Yao of southern China. Belgian memorial rubbings, one dated 1554 with a knight in prayer, record the brasses of Flemish churches, and drawings from China, Japan and Cuba widen the reach.

Parchment, vellum and cotton paper carry ink, wax and pigment in worn, fragile layers. Framed under glass in a study, they bring script and line to a wall; a long, narrow Pat scroll suits a stairwell. Handwriting outlasts a surprising amount.