Book of Hours in Dutch, decorated manuscript on vellum [Netherlands (probably Utrecht), c.1460-70]

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

208 leaves (plus 3 original endleaves), 132mm. by 90mm., complete, collation: i-ii⁶, iii-xvi⁸, xxvi⁴, single column, 18 lines in black ink in an angular late gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, one- and 2-line initials in red or blue, larger initials in same on grounds formed of elaborate contrasting penwork, silk thread page markers at base of volume, some ink flaking from a few leaves at end of volume and offset in places from red ink, else good condition, marbled endleaves, nineteenth-century elaborate gilt-tooled red morocco with a green border around a central black cabochon over bevelled wooden boards (somewhat worn at edges of spine and headbands

Provenance

provenance

(1) Written in the Netherlands, most probably in Utrecht, with the local saints, Pontianus (14 January), Servatius (13 May), Odulf (12 June), Lebuin (25 June) Wilibrort (7 November) in red; most probably for “Margriet pieters dochter”, whose ex libris appears on the last endleaf.

(2) Joseph Beard of Alderley: his nineteenth-century armorial bookplate (as in catalogue of Franks bequest, 1903, no.1922). He also owned a late fourteenth-century French Book of Hours from the collection of Philip Bliss, sold in our rooms, 8 November 1858, lot 383, and now in Houston University Library.

Catalogue Note

text

The volume comprises: a Calendar (fol.1r); the Short Hours of the Cross (fol.13r); the Office of the Virgin (fol.14r); the Greater Hours of the Cross (fol.63r); the Hours of the Eternal Wisdom, “ewighe wijtheit” (fol.91r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol.115r); the Penitential Psalms (fol.142r) followed by a Litany; and the Office of the Dead (fol.163r).