"Filiation ou Deduction noble et militaire de pere en filz de Marguarite Philippine de Curtius autrement de Cort fille unique & heritiere presomptive de feu noble homme Pierre de Curtius escuÿer seigneur d'Hermee &c: et de damoiselle Marie Jeanne de Henry sa femme".

Folio: front.-26-[2]-117 pp., some blanks, brown ink on laid paper, in French, Dutch and Latin, incl. certificates and authentic copies with autogr. signatures and 4 seals under paper, many watercoloured figures, 2 grisaille drawings laid on ff. (occ. soiling and stains, traces of very marg. brown stain on last ff.).

Contemp. black morocco, gilt-orn. sides "à la Duseuil", gilt-orn. spine with raised bands, a.e.g. (rubbed, some sm. worm holes and tracks, corners used).

Nice work ill. with watercolours: 57 coats of arms, 11 seals and 3 full-page drawings (2 grisailles) representing 2 tombstones and 1 stained glass. The text includes genealogical notes, 2 ff. with aut. signatures and seals of heralds of arms Pierre-Albert de Launay and Jean-Gilles Le Fort, num. proofs of nobility in certified copies signed by Guillaume Pirot and Posson with a seal, etc. With his brother Jean, P.-A. de Launay was a prolific 17th-c. genealogist settled in the Spanish Low Countries. Both are known to have forged genealogical trees and falsified official documents, certificates, patents, genealogies… Le Fort was king of arms and provincial herald of the Prince-Bishop of Liège.
Ref. Delgrange, D., "A culture of forgery. The de Launay Brothers and heraldic fraud in the 17th century", in Dix-Septième Siècle. 291/2, April 2021, pp. 119-139.
Prov. Oswald de Kerchove de Denterghem (1844-1906), Belgian politician (armorial bookpl. with initials "K.O.").