Funeral Procession
MINIATURE ON A LEAF FROM A BOOK OF HOURS, USE OF COUTANCES, IN LATIN [FRANCE (NORMANDY, COUTANCES?), 15TH CENTURY (C.1420S)]
LOT SOLD.
2,750 GBP
Details & Cataloguing
Music, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Continental Books
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London
London
Funeral Procession
MINIATURE ON A LEAF FROM A BOOK OF HOURS, USE OF COUTANCES, IN LATIN [FRANCE (NORMANDY, COUTANCES?), 15TH CENTURY (C.1420S)]
c.170x115mm, single vellum leaf, 14 lines, ruled space c.84x57mm, border decoration slightly cropped at the fore-edge, otherwise in very fine condition
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Catalogue Note
Provenance
(1) The parent volume was of the Use of Coutances, and the calendar included the dedication of Coutances cathedral and the Coutances feast of relics; a female patron was depicted kneeling before the Virgin and Child. (2) Irwin (d.1953) and Clara (d.1981) Strasburger of White Plains, New York, with their bookplate; sold in these rooms, 22 June 1982, lot 91, to Schwing, and subsequently broken up.
(1) The parent volume was of the Use of Coutances, and the calendar included the dedication of Coutances cathedral and the Coutances feast of relics; a female patron was depicted kneeling before the Virgin and Child. (2) Irwin (d.1953) and Clara (d.1981) Strasburger of White Plains, New York, with their bookplate; sold in these rooms, 22 June 1982, lot 91, to Schwing, and subsequently broken up.
The leaf with the Annunciation to the Shepherds miniature was in a distinguished collection in Belgium until sold in these rooms, 7 July 2015, lot 46; the leaves with St Matthew, the Annunciation, Pentecost, and the Coronation of the Virgin were in Christie’s online auction, 3 December 2015, lots 22, 23. The style is charming and distinctive: another Book of Hours in the same style, also of the Use of Coutances, was in the collection of J.R. Abbey, sold in our rooms, 20 June 1978, lot 2983 (with 5 reproductions).
Images depicting the carrying of the coffin from the church to the grave are exceptionally unusual; this one includes, below a remarkable gold and black sky, such rare details as the boy leading the procession, ringing hand-bells, and the sexton’s spade and hoe laid across the grave, perhaps to try to prevent anyone from falling in.
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Music, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Continental Books
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London
London
