St. Julian the Hospitaller and his wife rowing Christ across a River, miniature from the Tarleton Hours, in Latin and French, on vellum [Normandy (Rouen), c.1430]

single leaf, 140mm. by 100mm., with a three-quarter page miniature of St. Julian and his wife seated in a boat on a river, before a bridge and two medieval walled towns as a burnished gold sun blazes in the sky, the couple gazing up at a standing figure in the middle of the boat, dressed as a leper with a cruciform halo (denoting this is Christ), all above 4 lines of text in black ink in lettre bâtarde (opening the Suffrage to St. Julian), with a 4-line initial in light pink on a blue and gold ground with white penwork and orange and light pink baubles, text and miniature surrounded by three-quarter frame of coloured foliage and pot-like shapes on burnished gold bars, coloured acanthus sprays at head of bars, and single rinceaux border with gold ivy leaves, the verso with 21 lines of text (written space: 104mm. by 67mm.), rubrics in red, one 2-line initial in gold on a red and blue ground with white penwork, rubric in the last line announcing the Suffrage to St. Ursinus (‘De saint Ursin anteanne’), margins cropped with losses to borders at right-hand side, top and base, text flaked away and illegible in places, small pigment losses to miniature with small scratch to Christ’s face, gilt frame

1. The Tarleton Hours was in England by the late fifteenth century, and took its name from the family who owned the manuscript for nearly 200 years, until its sale as part of the estate of Mrs Henrietta Charlotte Tarlton in Christie’s, 3 July 1951, lot 50. At that time, it included thirty-five miniatures; with the present leaf as fol.57. Despite being the work of a Rouen artist, it was made for the Use of Sarum, and may well have been produced during the English occupation of Normandy at the end of the Hundred Years’ War. Soon after the sale, the miniatures (many such as the present leaf, with unusual iconographies) were removed and sold individually. The recorded leaves are listed, and their peregrinations traced in our catalogue, 20 June 1989, lot 58.

2. The present leaf was sold in our rooms, 6 July 1964, lot 208, to Sir Bruce Ingram (1877-1963), and appeared after his death in Maggs Bulletin 3, 1965, no.27 (illustrated on the front cover). It appeared again in our rooms, 10 July 1967, lot 5, and 23 June 1998, lot 26, when it was bought by the present owner for £3200.