Lot 48
  • 48

The Ashbourne Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
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Description

128 leaves (1 blank endleaf), 190mm. by 125mm., missing a few leaves (including calendar) from beginning and a few leaves wanting from last few gatherings, now slightly misbound, written space 105mm. by 60mm., single column, ruled in pink ink for 17 lines in black ink in a fine and accomplished late Gothic bookhand, occasional decorative cadels into lower margin, rubrics in red, some text of prayers picked out in blue or liquid gold, numerous 1-line initials in liquid gold or blue with purple or red penwork, numerous 2-line initials in liquid gold on blue and pink grounds touched with white penwork, commonly with simple foliage extending into margins terminating in touches of green wash for leaves and liquid gold ivy-leaves and bezants, ten 4-line initials in blue or pink with delicate white penwork on coloured grounds edged with burnished gold frame, infilled with coloured foliage on burnished gold ground with foliate extensions into margins forming a three-quarter border-frame of fleshy acanthus-leaves and trumpet-like flowers in blue, pink, green and brown, and slender peacock-feather-like shoots of foliage terminating in dabs of green wash for leaves, gold bezants and other trumpet-like flowers (pp. 20, 25, 29, 33, 36, 42, 50, 52, 59 and 74; occasional minor flaking to paint, but overall in clean and fresh condition), one 7-line initial in blue and pink with white penwork, enclosing coat-of-arms, all on remnants of burnished gold ground, acanthus-leaf and foliage extensions as above around entire text frame (p. 5; now somewhat degraded with gold flaked away and paint of coat-of-arms faded and silver oxidised), one miniature of the Crucifixion, 57mm. by 44mm., with three-quarter border frame (p. 98), leaves at beginning and end of volume quite stained, and in some areas the ink of the text has flaked away (perhaps due to the late medieval English practice of using less-stable lamp-black rather than iron-gall ink), some repairs to splits in margins of leaves (such as on p. 97), and the margins of four leaves trimmed vertically to edge of text (pp. 155-8 and 183-5), a few minor smudges and stains throughout, but overall in good and strong condition, nineteenth-century leather over wooden boards

Provenance

provenance

The illumination suggests that the volume was commissioned from a London workshop in the second quarter of the fifteenth century (see below), for a female patron (O intemerata in the female form: auxiliatrix) who is named as Johanne (Joanna or Joan) on p. 145. The arms are those of Sir John Ashbourne of Worcester (gules, with a fess or between six martlets arg.; see Burke's General Armoury and W. S. Ellis, 'The Origins of the Arms of Some Sussex Families', Sussex Archaeological Collections, vi, 1848, pp. 84-6), as in the Roll of Edward II (1284-1327), and the book was most probably produced for a descendent of his.

Condition

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

text

The volume contains an exceedingly rare set of Hours, that of the Hours of 'One's Guardian Angel', with Matins (p. 5), Lauds (p. 20), Prime (p. 25), Terce (p. 27, lacking opening), Sext (p. 29), None (p. 33), Vespers (p. 36), and Compline (p. 42); the Hours of the Trinity follow in a slightly misbound state, with Matins (pp. 67-72, lacking some leaves as well as Laud and Prime), Terce (p. 45), Sext (p. 50), None (p. 52), Vespers (p. 55, lacking opening), and Compline (p. 59, with the missing text now bound as pp. 73-86); Prayers on the Holy Name (pp. 64-66 & 87 onwards); Bede's prayer on the last words of Christ and on the Cross, with other prayers to Christ, God and the Virgin (p. 98); the Joys of the Virgin (p. 155); the Stabat Mater (p. 159), Prayers on the name of Mary (p. 163); Litany of the Virgin (p. 193); O intemerata (p. 201); Obsecro te and other prayers (p. 205), the Commendation of Souls (p. 227, lacking opening).

English manuscripts of the fifteenth century are not common, and those with significant illumination are rare. Moreover, owing to the overwhelming success of Paris and Bruges in the production of Books of Hours for patrons throughout Europe in the second half of the fifteenth century, Books of Hours of English manufacture are rare. The Fitzwilliam Museum, which has several hundred Books of Hours, perhaps the largest collection of such manuscripts within the British Isles, holds only three similar volumes of the fifteenth century: MS. 2-1967, written in the first quarter of the fifteenth century; MS. 3-1979, written c.1440, perhaps at Bury St. Edmunds; and MS. 375, written in the mid-fifteenth century by an English scribe under French influence, ex. Chester Beatty collection; Wormald & Giles, Descriptive Catalogue of the Additional Illuminated MSS in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1982.

illumination

The style of the illumination is distinctively English, and the short detailed figures in sumptuous clothing, set before a deep burgundy-red background high-lighted with liquid gold, in the present miniature compare well with other English compositions of the same period; see for example that reproduced in E. Duffy, Marking the Hours: English People and their prayers, 1240-1570, 2006, pl. 44. The border illumination, particularly the corner-pieces of the border-frames and the mix of fleshy acanthus-leaf sprays and simpler line-drawn foliage with trumpet-shaped flowers, bears a striking resemblance to Cambridge University Library, Ee.5.21 (recently edited by K. L. Scott, Dated and Dateable English Manuscript Borders c. 1395-1499, pp. 68-9), London, PRO E 164/10 (Scott, pp. 64-5), Oxford Bodleian, MS. Lat. Theol. B. 5 (Scott, pp. 78-9) and lot 49 in this sale, all productions of London workshops.

The single miniature portrays the Crucifixion with Christ in the centre of the scene, nailed to the Cross and with his haloed head drooping, his body with numerous wounds; to the left Mary Magdalene hunched over in sorrow (and with some paint flaked from her face) and Joseph of Arimathea who gazes at Christ's face; to the right a Roman soldier dressed in armour and a coloured tunic who holds a spear from which a white cloth flutters in the wind, and before him a bearded man in rich clothes (probably Pontius Pilate) who wears armour, a detailed fur jerkin heightened in yellow and liquid gold, and a large red cloth hat, who holds up his hand to Christ, from which a banderole descends containing the words vere filius d(e)i;  (truly, he is the son of God), set on a grassy hill which darkens as it rises in the distance, and before a deep burgundy red sky with elaborate liquid gold penwork tracing lines radiating from Christ and foliate patterns. The short squat figures which surround Christ, especially that of Pilate with his bifurcated beard, seem to be very reminiscent of those in another English Book of Hours of the same date and of probable London manufacture, now Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. B.11.7 (see K. L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, 1996, no. 47, pl. 195), and they are perhaps products of the same hand, or at the least the same workshop.