STATUTES OF THE ORDER OF THE GARTER | Illuminated manuscript, c.1587-8

HERALDRY--ORDER OF THE GARTER

The statutis and ordinances of the mooste noble ordre of saynt George named the Gartier Refourmed explained declared and Renewed by […] Kyng Henry the viiith

with, on the front free endpapers, the hand-coloured royal arms of Elizabeth I and, on the facing verso, the badge of the Chancellor of the Order of the Garter and the arms and crests of Amias Paulet, heightened in gilt, the statutes being followed by an account of oaths and offices of the officers of the Order, in Latin, then a copy of a letter by Queen Elizabeth I to Lord Howard of Effingham, appointing him as her Lieutenant at the coming Garter feast (22 April 1588), in two fine calligraphic hands with coloured initials heightened in gilt, engrossed capitals, marginal notes in red ink, ruled in red, the copy letter in an Elizabethan secretary hand, altogether 81 pages, plus blanks, on vellum, in contemporary limp vellum, covers with gilt compartments and gilt stamp centrepiece of the arms of Queen Elizabeth I, spine gilt

AN EXQUISITE PIECE OF ELIZABETHAN PENMANSHIP AND ARTISTRY IN FINE CONDITION, PRODUCED FOR THE CHANCELLOR OF THE ORDER OF THE GARTER. Sir Amias Paulet (1532-88) is best-remembered today as the tough and unsympathetic jailer of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her final years of imprisonment: it was under Paulet's watchful eye that Mary was allowed to communicate with Anthony Babington in the expectation that she would incriminate herself. Paulet's employment ended with Mary's execution on 8 February 1587 and his reward was appointment to the prestigious office of Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.

The Henrician governing statutes for the Order of the Garter remained largely unchanged until the 18th century (except for a short-lived reform under Edward VI). The small number of manuscript copies of the statutes that survive from the 16th century are all on vellum, not paper, and have the arms of the original recipient at the front of the volume, usually on the verso of a leaf bearing the arms of the Order (this example, unusually, has the Royal arms). The surviving statute manuscripts include exceptionally lavish royal productions (Francois I's copy, for example, is now at the British Library), as well as the copy produced for Paulet's successor as Chancellor, Sir John Woolley (Royal Collection, RCIN 1081223), but they are exceptionally rare on the market. WE HAVE NO RECORD OF A 16th CENTURY COPY OF THE GARTER STATUTES APPEARING AT AUCTION SINCE 1981.

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