Description

Manuscript in black ink on paper with a large water mark in Ottoman and a printed round stamp in Ottoman, blind round stamp in Ottoman, verso manuscript in Ottoman script in black ink (soft folds, one side slightly age-toned, otherwise in a good condition) 15 x 25 cm (5.9 x 9.8 inches). 
 
A hand written receipt was made in 1879 by an architect Antoine Perpignani in Istanbul, to confirm receiving five percent of the payment from Aaron Niño (Aron Nigno) as an architect, working on the Pertev Pasha Han in the same year.   

The Pertev Paşa han here possibly refers to a building on Uzun Çarşı in Istanbul, which is today rebuilt into offices.   

The family Perpignani was an old Venetian family with its coat of arms, which came to Istanbul from the Greek island Tinos, where they were recorded for centuries.

Antoine Perpignani is recorded as an architect of Hanif Han in 1904, The Ottoman Bank in Eskişehir, which was built in 1909,  

In 1885, Perpignani made plans for a “Viladethane”, a maternity hospital for unwed mothers, in Istanbul, commissioned by Besim Ömer Pasha. The idea of single mothers was at the time was such a taboo, that Ömer was named a devil and his house was stoned. After long complications, the hospital was opened for the first time in Istanbul in 1892.