Victoria (Melita) Federovna, Grand Duchess
APOCALYPSE DE ST-JEAN. ST BRIAC, 1930-1931
LOT SOLD.
9,375 GBP
Details & Cataloguing
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Continental and Russian Books
|
London
London
Victoria (Melita) Federovna, Grand Duchess
APOCALYPSE DE ST-JEAN. ST BRIAC, 1930-1931
square 4to (165 x 140mm.), ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, text in French, 49 leaves, 7 etched silver plates signed by Nozal, each with two green silk guards, binding by Asprey of London, embossed and chased silver panelled covers over green crushed morocco, upper cover decorated with 4 collet set cabochon sapphires, square enamel corner-pieces and a central enamel panel with a portrait of St John, lower cover with 8 heart-shaped enamel pieces arranged around a central collet set cabochon sapphire (enamels by Paul-Victor Grandhomme or Victoria Melita?), lettered silver spine covering, 2 clasps with a blue stone set in each strap, green silk endpapers, gilt edges, in velvet-lined folding box, metal covers slightly rubbed
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
Provenance
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg, later Grand Duchess Victoria Federovna of Russia (1876-1936)
Catalogue Note
A BEAUTIFUL MANUSCRIPT, with elaborate decoration comprising animal and floral motifs, containing on the final leaf a portrait of Victoria Melita reading a religious book to her husband and a seated lady, beneath their coat of arms. The last metal plate contains the inscription "Ce livre a ete fait par S.A.I. la Grande Duchesse Kirill de Russie en collaboration avec Jacques Nozal et Julie Nozal"; Victoria and her husband Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich settled after the Russian Revolution in France, at Saint-Briac in Brittany.
Julie and Jacques Nozal were artists, Julie in particular looking back to early Christian texts as models; this manuscript contains the text in an art nouveau script, with marginal decoration influenced by illuminated medieval manuscripts. Julie's father, Paul-Victor Grandhomme of Saint-Briac (1851-1944), was a master enameller and Victoria Melita learned enamelling from him and engraving from Julie.
For another manuscript made by the Nozals for (and probably with) Grand Duchess Victoria Melita, see sale in our rooms, 29 November 2016, lot 195 (a prayerbook in Russian and English).
Suggested Lots
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Continental and Russian Books
|
London
London
