Book of Hours, Use of Utrecht, in Dutch, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Eastern Netherlands (probably Zwolle), c.1470-80]

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

141 leaves, 135mm. by 100mm., wanting single leaves (perhaps once with miniatures or initials) from fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth gatherings, probably a number of leaves from nineteenth gathering, else complete, collation: i⁹ (i a singleton with miniature), ii-iii⁸, iv⁷ (ii wanting), v⁸, vi³ (i wanting), vii⁸, viii⁷ (i wanting), ix⁷ (vi wanting), x³ (i wanting), xi-xiii⁸, xiv², xv-xviii⁸, xix² (perhaps wanting at least one bifolium), xx⁶, xxi⁸, single column, 17 lines in brown ink in a fine angular late gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, one-line initials in alternate gold and blue with penwork to contrast, 2-line initials in burnished gold on pink or blue grounds with foliate extensions into margins terminating in gold and coloured flowers, two 4-line initials in same with decorated borders on three sides, ten 6-line initials in blue on brightly burnished gold grounds, containing coloured sprigs of foliage, and with borders on three sides of acanthus leaves, flowers, fruit, three historiated initials (fols.2r, 44r and 69r) with similar borders, enclosing 12 angels playing musical instruments, holding the instruments of the Passion or grasping the border foliage, and a peacock, the bas-de-page in the last containing the dead rising from their graves below a fiery sky, full-page miniature of the Annunciation, with a border of rinceaux terminating in bulbous foliage buds and bezants, enclosing a virgin soothing a unicorn in the bas-de-page, slight fading to first opening, trimmed at top affecting some borders, else excellent condition, silk doublures, eighteenth-century gilt-tooled black morocco over pasteboards, some scuffs at headbands and small splits along spine, else good, gilt edges

Provenance

provenance

(1) Illuminated by the Masters of the Zwolle Bible, perhaps under the supervision of the Brethren of the Common Life at Zwolle in the Gregoriushuis (see Wierda, De Sarijs-handschriften, 1995, p.169), most probably for the “Tho[mas] Joffe”, whose late fifteenth century ex libris in Dutch on the last leaf (now covered with a silk doublure) is visible with UV light through the recto of the leaf. He was doubtless a resident of Utrecht (the use is that of that city, and the Calendar contains the local saints: Pontianus, 14 January, Servatius, 13 May, Odulf, 12 June, Lebuin, 25 June and 12 November, and Wilibrort, 7 November, in red).

(2) Sold Christie’s, 25 November 1992, lot 14, for £8,800, to an agent of the current owner.

Catalogue Note

text

The book contains: the Hours of the Virgin (fol.2r), with Lauds (fol.11r), Prime (fol.20r), Terce (fol.24r), None (fol.29r), Vespers (fol.33r, wanting opening), Compline (fol.39r, wanting opening); the Hours of the Cross (fol.44r); the Penitential Psalms (fol.69r) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol.96r, wanting Vespers and opening of Matins); and a Calendar (fol.129r).

illumination

The illumination and miniature paintings here are the work of the Masters of the Zwolle Bible, a group of artists identified from their production of a sumptuous six-volume Bible for the Community of the Brethren of the Common Life in Zwolle, between 1462 and 1476 (now Utrecht University Library, MS.31), which was described in the 1989 exhibition as “finely decorated but never excessively or exaggeratedly opulent … [the] colours are kept pale, and the illumination has a quality of extreme lightness (The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, p.244). The handling of the figures here exemplify this, and the virgin with the unicorn in an unusual addition.

The significant illuminations comprise: (1) fol.1v, full-page miniature of the Annunciation to the Virgin, in a gothic interior, full border containing the Virgin and Unicorn. (2) fol.2r, historiated initial with half-length Virgin and Child on a crescent moon, angels playing music in the border. (3) fol.44r, historiated initial with Christ as Man of Sorrows, surrounded by the instruments of the Passion, angels with same instruments in the border. (4) fol.69r, historiated initial with Judgement Day, God seated on a rainbow between two angels in the margin who blow the Last Trump, the dead climbing from their graves in the bas-de-page.