Horae, Heures de Paris contenant plusieurs oraisons, Paris, 1552, contemporary Parisian calf gilt
Auction Closed
December 10, 04:10 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
We may charge or debit your saved payment method subject to the terms set out in our Conditions of Business for Buyers.
Read more.Lot Details
Description
HORAE. USE OF PARIS. Heures Paris contenant plusieurs oraisons debuotes, en francoys & en Latin, & confession Generalle. Paris: Thielman Kerver, 1552
A charming and uncommon book of hours, both in the printing and the binding, using naturalistic borders originally devised by Geofroy Tory, for his quarto book of hours of 1527, and a smaller format set was first used in 1529. A book of hours printed by Mallard in 1541 was probably the first appearance of these particular blocks, which then came to Kerver’s printshop as part of Tory and Mallard’s stock. Kerver’s father, also Thielman, and his mother Yolande Bonhomme, were major producers of books of hours in the first few decades of the sixteenth century.
The books of hours printed by Simon de Colines with Tory’s woodcuts in the late 1520s provided a break with the previous more Gothic appearance of books of hours, which were usually printed on vellum, though the older style continued to be produced by Kerver and others.
The design on the edges is similar to those made by the Atelier de Fontainebleau (such as Reliures royales de la Renaissance, no. 29). The painted armorials, which plausibly post-date the binding, have not been identified.
12mo (157 x 90 mm). Roman type. collation: A-O12 [2]A-D12: 216 leaves. Printed in red and black, woodcut printer’s device on title-page and above colophon, each page within a woodcut border featuring birds, insects, animals and flowers, often with the device or armorial of a French king at foot, other small woodcuts, ruled in red, small armorial painted to foot of title-page. (A few very small ink stains, quire [2]A lightly browned.)
binding: Contemporary Parisian interlaced calf gilt (162 x 100 mm), covers with delicate painted interlacing over a pointillé ground with a few small leafy tools, (later?) painted armorial in centre of upper cover, and on lower cover the arms paired with another armorial, with traces of gilt lettering on a painted ring around the armorials (now mostly rubbed away), spine with a gilt leafy interlaced stamp in compartments, edges gilt, gauffered and painted, stubs from two pairs of yellow silk ties. (Binding repaired at edge and ends of spine, some rubbing of paint, joints slightly cracked.)
provenance: Unidentified arms on binding — Du Val, signature on title-page — pencil note and armorial of Lambert on front flyleaf, and old note “jam lambert esquir” pasted to inside front cover. acquisition: Purchased in 2000 from Rodolphe Chamonal, Paris. references: Bohatta 349; not in BP16 or Lacombe; USTC 40933 (a lost book); cf. Mortimer, Harvard French 313 (use of Paris, printed by Kerver in 1556)
You May Also Like
