L12240

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Lot 2
  • 2

Four leaves from medieval illuminated manuscripts, on vellum [thirteenth to fifteenth century]

Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 GBP
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Description

  • Vellum
four leaves, comprising (a) leaf from the Beauvais Missal, 285mm. by 190mm., three large initials in blue or pink on raised burnished gold, angular coloured foliage in borders enclosing gold bezants and clusters of coloured leaves, 2 initials enclosing geometric patterns, and a third a lacertine drollery-creature, double column, 15 lines in a large angular gothic hand, slight smudge to one border, northern France (probably Beauvais), late thirteenth century); (b) leaf from a lectern Bible, 400mm. by 270mm., with a large initial 'I' (opening "Iacobus ihesu christi seruus ...", the epistle of James) in burnished gold with a coloured architectural roof and arch, enclosing a bearded James with a golden halo pointing at the opening of his epistle, angular foliage forming text-frame around all sides of one text column, terminating in golden leaves and a dragon, 3-line initial enclosing ivy-leaf, similar text-frame on verso with a dragon and a 5-line initial containing a sprig of foliage ending with a dragon's head, double column, 50 lines in a regular gothic hand, area of one column cut away (90mm. by 95mm., presumably once with a large initial), now repaired with another cutting from same volume, once mounted on card with remains of tape on recto, France or southern Flanders, early fourteenth century; (c) leaf from a Bible, 212mm. by 145mm., with a large initial 'P' (opening "Parabole salomonis filii ..." the prologue to Proverbs), in blue and pink , enclosing an enthroned Solomon before a kneeling pupil, extensions into two borders containing two dragons (one biting himself and another biting the base of the initial, his tail ending in a sprig of coloured foliage), slight scuffs to edges, remains of tape from mounting on verso, England, c.1220; (d) leaf from a Book of Hours, 165mm. by 135mm., with a three-quarter page miniature of the Raising of Lazarus, above a 4-line initial in pink and blue enclosing foliage, three-quarter border of acanthus-leaves and other foliage with a man in the border, faded and rubbed in places, trimmed at base, northern France, c.1460

Provenance

Items (a) and (b) come from manuscripts dispersed by the self-declared biblioclast, Otto Ege (1888-1951); items (a), (c) and (d) appeared in Ellin Mitchell, Twenty Four Illuminated Miniatures, 1982, nos.2, 5, 13.

Catalogue Note

Item (a) is from the Missal given to Beauvais Cathedral by Robert de Hangest (d.1356). later in the Brölemann library (sale in these rooms, 5 May 1926, lot 161; cf. C. de Hamel, Gilding the Lilly, pp.76-77, no.34).  The parent manuscript of item (b) was sold by Parke-Bernet, 30 November 1948, lot 326, evidently to Otto Ege. The largest remnant reappeared in our rooms, 11 December 1984, lot 39, and is mostly now in the Schøyen Collection; other leaves include the opening of Nehemiah in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, MS 1998.538a.