A tiny <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=illuminated+manuscript&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">illuminated manuscript</a> on parchment Book of Hours produced in Paris for the extremely rare south-western French Use of Saintes.<ul><li>Northern France, circa 1470-1480.</li><li>Text in Latin.</li><li>190 leaves on parchment (plus two paper endleaves at front and back).</li><li>16 lines, ruled in red ink, written in very small, dark brown lettre bâtarde, rubrics in red.</li><li>Calendar in red with significant names in blue, line fillers, illuminated initials in red and blue, with gold and white tracery.</li><li>Panel border decoration framing text on outer margin throughout 146 pages, with designs of swirling hairline stems bearing numerous acanthus and ivy leaves, fruits and flowers in blue, green and red, and gold bezants.</li><li>Three large initials measuring 5 lines high, containing white and blue flowers on liquid gold grounds, including illuminated full panel borders on top, bottom and outer margins of text.</li><li>Five large miniatures by Maître François, in arch-toped compartments in same decorative style, including birds, berries and drolleries, above large initials and five lines of text.</li><li>Bound in seventeenth-century French olive-brown morocco with gilt ornamental roundel motifs filled with small dotted tooling around cover borders and spine, some rubbing on raised bands, marbled endleaves, gilt edges.</li></ul> Illumination:Beautifully intricate miniatures painted with extensive liquid gold highlights.(1) fol. 31r, the Annunciation, the Virgin kneeling before Gabriel on the right with a banderole “ave maria gracia”, a green canopy and architectural frame above, gothic windows behind, and border including white flowers, red berries, songbirds and a peacock; (2) fol. 57r, the Nativity, the Child lying on the hem of the Virgin’s robe who kneels with Joseph outside the stable, a donkey and a cow behind, a hill to the right; (3) fol. 64r, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, two shepherds and a shepherdess gazing up as two angels appear in the heavens holding a musical scroll, sheep in the foreground drinking from a spring, a dog asleep, landscape and two towers in the background; (4) fol. 86r, the Coronation of the Virgin, with the Virgin in Heaven kneeling before the Throne of God as an angel leans over a tapestry and places a crown on her head; (5) fol. 98r, David in prayer, kneeling before an open book on a wooden lectern, harp beside him as God appears in the sky above, with a centaur drollery shooting an arrow at a grotesque in the border.

Book Of Hours, Use Of Saintes, In Latin, Illuminated Manuscript On Parchment

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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