A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> illuminated and leather-bound testimonial for Sir Charles Herries K.C.B., retiring Chairman of the Board of the Inland Revenue.<ul><li>November 1881.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>7 illuminated leaves with floral borders in blue, pink, green, white and gold, and window mounted at the beginning of the volume.</li><li>114 vellum leaves comprising several thousand signatures of tax officers and related civil servants in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, all in double columns with red rules and titled office headings, versos blank throughout.</li><li>All edges gilt, moire silk endpapers, original gilt relief-paneled executed by De La Rue &amp; Co. in red full morocco with gilt monogram and family crest centrepiece laid over green calf.</li></ul> Sir John Charles Herries (1815-1883), a famous financier, was the eldest son of the politician John Charles Herries (1778-1855). He is also possibly related to banker and politician Robert Herries (18th century), the inventor of the circular note (the forerunner of the traveler’s check), whose bank was acquired by Lloyds Bank in 1893. In 1842 Sir Robert Peel made him a commissioner of excise. In 1856 he was chosen by Sir George Cornewall Lewis to occupy the deputy chair of the board of inland revenue, and in 1877 Lord Beaconsfield raised him to the chairmanship. In 1871 he was made C.B., and in 1880 K.C.B. He left the public service in November 1881, ‘and his eminent financial and administrative abilities were acknowledged in a treasury minute, 2 Dec. 1881, and subsequently presented to parliament.’ He died in March 1883.

Illuminated Testimonial for Sir Charles Herries K.C.B.

A fine illuminated miniature <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Qur%27an&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Qur'an</a>, copied by a royal scribe from the court of Fath’Ali Shah Qajar.<ul><li>Produced by Abdullah al-Ranani (Persian).</li><li>Qajar Persia: Dated 1225 AH (1815 AD).&nbsp;</li><li>Illuminated manuscript on polished paper.</li><li>191 leaves plus 3 endpapers (2 at front and 1 at back).</li><li>Arabic text.</li><li>21 lines fine and refined naskh script copied in miniature format, in black, 2 opening leaves of prayers copied in central lobed panels, in red, plus an additional set at the end of the volume, opening two facing pages of the Qur’an with exquisitely fine gilt polychrome decorations to borders, interlinear coloring of gold to every leaf of text, catch-words throughout.</li><li>Housed in fine contemporary gilt lacquered boards, with decorative floral compositions to covers set against a red background and framed within a gold foliate border.</li></ul>&nbsp;&nbsp;An exquisite miniature Qur’an form the early Qajar period.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The copyist Abdullah Ibn Ashoub al-Ranani was a royal scribe in the Court of Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar (r.1797-1834). Al-Ranani was renowned for his fine naskh script which is exemplified here in a delicate miniature format, which is unusual for this scribe whose other traced Qur’ans have been notably larger in scale.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This Qur’an was produced to the highest possible specification of the period with no expense spared; every single page of the text is illuminated with interlinear coloring of gold, the script is delicate and legible despite its miniature format, and the binding is exemplary: it was undoubtedly commissioned for a member of the Qajar royal family.&nbsp;

Miniature Illuminated Qur'an

Christ, in a large initial, from a manuscript choir book&nbsp;most likely decorated by a Picard <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=illuminated+manuscripts&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">illuminator</a> working in Naples during the Angevin rule, on <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=vellum&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vellum</a>.<ul><li>[Italy (Naples), circa 1325].</li><li>Tall and thin cutting from a manuscript leaf, with large initial ‘I’ enclosing Christ as a standing figure, robed in green and burgundy, with a halo formed from burnished gold with black details, on a dark blue ground with large gold bezants and scrolling white foliage, the foot of the initial trailing off into colored acanthus leaves and a gold bezant, the later inscription “IES[U]” added over Christ’s body at thigh height, the reverse with remains of 3 lines of music in square notation on 4-line red staves (rastrum 49mm), with one line of text in a gothic liturgical script.</li></ul> This is a long-lost cutting from a fascinating Neapolitan choir book, apparently produced by French artists in the Kingdom of Naples during the Angevin rule, connected to King Robert of Anjou or a member of his court. 182 leaves of this choir book now survive in the National Museum in Stockholm. The part now in the National Museum in Stockholm was purchased in Naples in 1857, and saints Francis and Clare are in prominent positions, suggesting that the original parent book was made for the major church of the city, Santa Chiara, or the Franciscan and Clarissan monasteries that are part of the same structure there. While there are two artists’ hands represented in the illumination of the whole choir book, the one here presents as the most skillful and exceptional. The artist blends Italian and French motifs to form a bewildering and enticing hybrid style of medieval art.

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