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Lot 31•
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT A Manual of Prayers. Selected and Illuminated by Belinda de Trafford, 1865
11 November 2015, 13:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £7,500 inc. premium
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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT
A Manual of Prayers. Selected and Illuminated by Belinda de Trafford, calligraphic manuscript on paper, 116 leaves, written in black ink with capital letters supplied in red, ILLUMINATED IN GOLD AND COLOURS THROUGHOUT, including 18 LEAVES WITH MINIATURES illustrating biblical scenes, saints etc. within elaborate borders often incorporating smaller miniatures (these leaves and illuminated title-page window-mounted, a few loose), text surrounded by elaborate full borders throughout, containing acanthus and other foliage, flowers, animals, mythical beasts, birds, insects etc., paragraph initial letters in red, blue and green on a gold background, last page inscribed "A testamentary gift from Belinda de Trafford to her brother Augustus Henry de Trafford and his heirs male (1869)", the border incorporating a small inset photographic portrait of Belinda de Trafford (overpainted with the background in gold), contemporary vellum over wooden boards, sides and spine decorated in gilt with outer leafy borders enclosing repeated fleur-de-lys and Lancashire roses, metal centrepieces with enamelled family crest (upper cover) and monogram (lower cover), metal corner bosses and enamelled clasps (one detached) with catch plates in the form of stems with roses, watered silk endpapers, gilt gauffered edges with fleur-de-lys, front hinge split with gathering of blank leaves loose, preserved in original monogrammed roan box (hinge broken), 4to (190 x 160mm.), 1865
Footnotes
An exceptional nineteenth century medieval-style Lancashire manuscript, with finely executed illumination by Belinda de Trafford, the date of the inscription at the end suggesting that she may have spent four years on the work.
Provenance: Belinda de Trafford (1816-1900), daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Katherine de Trafford, members of a prominent family of English Roman Catholics residing at Trafford Park. A devout christian, Belinda never married and was known for her charitable work, leaving £2500 in her will for the building of a church at Irlam outside Manchester.

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