

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).