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Lot Number
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55
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Title
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BOOK OF HOURS, IN DUTCH, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
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Year Published
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1490
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Place Printed
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NORTHERN NETHERLANDS (MOST PROBABLY LEIDEN)
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Description
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BOOK OF HOURS, IN DUTCH, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [NORTHERN NETHERLANDS (MOST PROBABLY LEIDEN), C.1490] 136 leaves, 175mm. by 125mm., perhaps wanting a singleton with a miniature before fol.55, else complete, collation: i-ii6, iii9 (i a singleton with a miniature), iv8, v-vi6, vii7 (i a singleton with a miniature), viii6, ix8, x6, xi9 (i a singleton with a miniature), xii8, xiii2, xiv6 (i and v singletons with miniatures), xv7 (i a singleton with a miniature), xvi8, xvii2, xix-xx8, xxi2, 20 lines in black ink in a professional angular late gothic script, small initials in red or blue, larger (2- to 3-line) in same with contrasting penwork extending up and down borders, small gold initials on fols.86v-87v and 93r, one 5-line initial in gold on burgundy and blue grounds heightened with white penwork (fol.50r), seven full-page miniatures (fols.13v, 42v, 69v, 88v, 92v, 94v and 112v) with densely populated full borders of coloured acanthusleaves, flowers, strawberries, bulbous buds and bezants, enclosing birds, people and small vignettes (such as the martyrdom of St. Stephen in the bas-de-page of fol.42v), each facing a text leaf with a full border in same, three such text leaves with large coloured initials on bright burnished gold grounds (fols.89r, 95r, 113r), another with a smaller gold initial on burgundy and blue grounds (fol.95r), and three with historiated initials (fols.14r, 43r, 70r; the first with some flaking), another large coloured initial on gold grounds on 55r, and three-quarter borders on fol.50r and 55r, slightly trimmed at edges, some smudges, slight flaking, scuffs and slight thumbing to edges of leaves, else good condition, eighteenthcentury gilt-tooled red morocco over pasteboards with silver cornerpieces and working clasp
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Lot Note
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The volume comprises: a Calendar (fol.1r); the Hours of the Virgin (fol.14r: "Hier begint die vrouwe ghetide"); the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol.43r), followed by a Litany (fol.50r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol.55r: "Hier begint die heilige geest getide"); the Hours of the Cross (fol.70r:"Hier begint die cruus ghetide"); prayers to SS. Anne and Ursula (fol.89r); the Hours of the Holy Wisdom (fol.95r: "Hier begint die ewige wijsheit ghetide"); and the Office of the Dead (fol.113r). illumination This is perhaps the finest surviving example of the work of the Masters of Hugo Janszoon van Woerden, a group of illuminators who appear to have worked in Leiden during the last two decades of the fifteenth century. Their collective hands are also detectable in two other Books of Hours (Liverpool, Merseyside Museums, Mayer Ms. 12023 and The Hague, KB. 76 G 10), as well as individually in a number of others (see for example: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Add. 499A, and that sold in our rooms, 17 December 1991, lot 92). Interestingly, many of the compositions used by these artists are traceable to early prints, as in the Annunciation on fol.13v and the Coronation of the Virgin on fol.94v here, which closely follow prints by Martin Schongauer (1430-91; cf. Illustrated Bartsch, 8, 1980, 3(120) and 71(152)), and the Virgin and Child with St. Anne on fol.88v which follows a print by I.A.M. of Zwolle (ibid., 15(199)) . The miniatures comprise: 1. fol.13v, The Annunciation to the Virgin, 107mm. high, as she kneels in a gothic interior before a richly embroidered burgundy cloth as the angel with delicately painted multi-coloured wings edged in gold appears, peacocks in the courtyard and a seascape behind; a historiated initial 'H' opposite enclosing the Virgin and Child; four colourful birds in the border. 2. fol.42v, Judgement Day, 109mm. high, with Christ seated on a rainbow as a male and a female saint kneel in prayer and the dead (three with simplified skulls resembling bowling balls) rising from their graves; a historiated initial 'H' enclosing David knelt in prayer; a coloured bird, an owl and the martyrdom of St. Stephen with two archers firing arrows at him in the border. 3. fol.69v, the Crucifixion, 105mm. high, Christ with an elaborately fluttering loincloth lifting on each side like a banderole from his slumped body; historiated initial 'H' enclosing a tonsured priest and assistant in supplication before a vision of Christ and the instruments of the Passion and the Veronica, behind them a pope offers his crown to Christ; ten birds in the border. 4. fol.88v, St. Anne reading, 109mm. high, enthroned in a high-backed chair before a detailed green cloth held by two angels, her arm around the Virgin seated next to her with the Child on her lap; six birds and seated woman in the border. 5. fol.92v, St. Ursula, 107mm. high, with an elaborate trefoil crown and a dress embroidered with red flower-buds, her blue cloak supported by two angels, her followers seated at her feet reading; six birds, a growling lion and a beakfaced man in the border. 6. fol.94v, the Coronation of the Virgin, 110mm., in a rich gothic interior with three angels wearing crown surmounted by crosses watching from the background; seven birds (one of whom bites a man with a spear on the leg, another is shot through the neck by a man with a bow and arrow) and a peacock. 7. fol.112v, a funeral, 108mm., with a priest, his assistant and two mourners around a bier within a church with silvergrey windows; six birds and a peacock in the border. Western and Oriental Manuscripts London | 06 Dec 2011, 10:30 AM | L11241
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Provenance
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1. E. Nourry, Parisian bookseller; his sale Bibliotheque de feu M. Emile Nourry, 11 December 1976, lot 90. 2. Acquired by the present owner from Pierre Berès, cat.71 (1980), no.5.
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Estimated Price
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GBP 12,000.00 - 18,000.00( USD 18240.00 - USD 27360.00)
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Actual Price
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GBP 51,650.00 ( USD 78508.00)
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