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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT In die nativitatis domini, illuminated manuscript on thick card, [Fernham Priory, early twentieth century] image 1
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT In die nativitatis domini, illuminated manuscript on thick card, [Fernham Priory, early twentieth century] image 2
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT In die nativitatis domini, illuminated manuscript on thick card, [Fernham Priory, early twentieth century] image 3
Lot 277

ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT
In die nativitatis domini, illuminated manuscript on thick card, [Fernham Priory, early twentieth century]

Amended
24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

£2,000 - £4,000

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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT

In die nativitatis domini, illuminated manuscript on thick card, 9 pages, finely illuminated in gold and colours, opening page with large elaborate historiated initial with an angel playing a rebec, signed "D. Mark" lower right, remaining pages with text and music on 4-line staves surrounded by elaborate borders of varying styles (incorporating one Virgin and Child vignette, cherubs, angels, dragons, flowers, saints etc), 2 further decorated initials, one incorporating a sleeping Jesus, and one vignette on p[7]; In sabbato sancto bendictio cerei, 8 pages, illuminated in red, blue and green, the music and text enclosed by ornate borders in leafy geometric patterns, 2 parts in 1 vol., the 9 leaves mounted on guards, full red panelled morocco by Lamcroft and Lawrence, sides with inner and outer ornate borders, upper cover letered in gilt 'Pax', gilt panelled spine with raised bands and floral tools, inner gilt dentelles, g.e., 530 x 415mm.; together with another volume containing 3 illuminated manuscript leaves on paper, the first 2 finely illuminated in gold and colours (one miniature of the Resurrection, elaborate initials and borders), window-mounted, and with 3 further loosely inserted leaves in the same style as the 'In sabbato sancto bendictio' above, modern cloth, leaf size 355 x 275mm., both volumes preserved in solander box, [Fernham Priory, early twentieth century]

Footnotes

A finely bound group of attractive illuminated liturgical manuscript leaves, executed, according to information received the former Mother Superior at St. Mary's Benedictine Priory at Fernham in Oxfordshire, by two nuns named Sister Mary Walburga (Caroline Campbell, died 1928) and Sister Francis de Sales (Clare Rymer, died 1948).

The Priory was first established in 1832 at Princethorpe, Warwickshire, by a community of Benedictine nuns from Montargis near Orleans who fled from France in 1792 after being persecuted during the French Revolution. The Priory was at one time the largest in England with over 200 nuns. In 1966 dwindling numbers led to the move to Fernham, and in 2001 the Priory closed and the nuns were dispersed.

Saleroom notices

We are grateful to Sister Mary Lucy, formerly of Fernham priory, for confirming the provenance and that the illumination was the work of Sister Mary Walburga and Sister Francis de Sales (a "talented artist... probable that [she] did the greater part of the fine illumination, though it seems certain that both were involved to some extent").

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