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Lot 88•
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, Holland (perhaps Utrecht) third quarter of the fifteenth century.
15 June 2016, 14:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £16,250 inc. premium
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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, illuminated manuscript on vellum, 127 leaves (including 2 blanks, probably of 130 or more), in more than one textura hand, usually over 15 lines, modern pencil pagination [1], 13, 113 (followed here), 13 LEAVES WITH FULL ILLUMINATED NATURALISTIC FLORAL BORDERS with liquid gold, red, green, blue and mauve, distinctive butterfly-shaped cornerpieces, each with 4- or 5-line initials, numerous 2-line initials (notably to the calendar) with gold and colours with spray borders, some in blue with red calligraphic decoration, many initial letters in red, blue, or gold, some occasional rubbing and possible retouching to liquid gold, early blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, rebacked, later gilt, with initials in cartouche 'AS' to covers, later endpapers, modern clasps (to style), small 4to (178 × 130mm.), Holland (perhaps Utrecht) third quarter of the fifteenth century.
Footnotes
A handsome and intriguing Dutch Book of Hours of the Use of Sarum, clearly destined for the British market, with British saints in the calendar and an early British (and perhaps Scottish) provenance.
COLLATION: A-B14, C9 (of 10, one leaf excised between ff. 18 and 19), D-H8, I10, J-L8, M8(?), N8(?), O8 (though obvious disturbance in the penultimate 2 gatherings with 2 leaves excised, between ff. 94 and 95; 105 and 106, so the structure unverified). The three excised leaves potentially bore significant illumination, perhaps full-page miniatures.
TEXT: f.[1] ruled blank with later annotations and wax seal of Nicholas Stuart, 1-12 Calendar (with saints Edward Confessor, Cuthbert, Dunstan, Aldhelm, Augustine, Edith, and Thomas whose name has not been defaced); 13 Prayer to the Holy Trinity; 14-47 Hours of the Virgin, Use of Sarum; 48-60v Penitential Psalms; 61-68 Litany and prayers; 69-70 'Illumina oculus meos'; 71-102 Office of the Dead; 103-4 Memorials of Sts Anne and Barbara; 105 blank; 106-112v Passional Psalms, 113 'Domine Deus omnipotent pater et filius'.
PROVENANCE: Some early marginal annotation in Latin; early seventeenth-century initials 'A.S' to first calendar leaf (together with an unidentified later inkstamp), seal of Nicholas Stuart of Hartley-Mauditt, Hants (1616-1709, a descendant of Alexander Stuart and the Lords High Stewards of Scotland) to paper slip pasted to verso of first leaf, with manuscript caption 'Ex Andrea Seniscallo'; 'Liber Sam. Woodford, empt. 1665' to first leaf, with note recording its earlier Nicholas Stuart provenance. Initials to binding 'A.S.' perhaps added later.
A modern inserted note makes a comparison with Royal Library, Hague MS 131 G4, (described by the KB as Utrecht, c.1470, illuminated by the Master of the Boston City of God). The same note suggests incorrectly that the manuscript is apparently complete (it obviously lacks 3 leaves, probably illuminated), and another note questions a direct link with Stuart royalty and suggests the binding has been sophisticated with its initials altered (and the manuscript 'put in proper order' by Rivière).