Two leaves from an early Psalter-Hours, with numerous penwork drolleries of a hanged man, a cow chased by a dog playing a musical instrument and others, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Flanders, or perhaps Rhineland, third quarter of the thirteenth century] Two leaves, each with single column of 20 lines in an angular early gothic bookhand, 2-line initials in blue or gold with contrasting penwork, the leaf with modern foliation '34' in upper outer corner with a large initial 'I' (opening 'Iuste iudex ...', see below) formed from a youthful David holding a sword and standing within a green tower topped with a gold parapet, a red and green dragon biting at the foot of the tower, and another penwork dragon used as a line-filler, other geometric line-fillers in colours and gold, this leaf somewhat stained in centre, discoloured and cockled, trimmed at top removing top of parapet and at innermost edge removing part of tail of dragon; and the leaf with modern foliation '202' with penwork scene of a man being hung in the upper margin, with a figure each side drawing up ropes as he dangles from a scaffold, a cow with a bell around its neck being chased by a dog, as the cow plays a musical instrument (perhaps a hirtenschalmei, a shepherd's shawm, as often played by rustics in medieval art), and three other bird-headed drolleries, one of whom plays a similar instrument, two contemporary repairs, and similar trimming at head removing the top of the hanging scene; both overall fair and presentable condition, 177 by 134mm. Provenance: 1. Produced as a lavish commission for a nun (one of the collects of another leaf mentioning 'our abbess'), most probably in Flanders or the Rhineland (with previous attempts at localisation including England, eastern France and lower Lorraine). The opulent level of decoration has been taken to suggest that the original owner of the book may have been royal. 2. Broken and widely dispersed in the 1960s, with leaves in the collection of Carl Richartz, Amsterdam by 1966. A part of this dispersal was undertaken by Folio Fine Art, with leaves initially appearing there in their cat. 43 in February 1967, and the leaf foliated '202' here has an erased inscription on its reverse recording their stock number 'MS 2617', and a price: '£10.10. 0'. Alan Thomas and Maggs also sold leaves in this decade (see P. Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, II, 2019, no. 20, and the list of known leaves in Sotheby's, 7 July 2015, lot 13, not including these here). 3. These leaves acquired from a UK private collector in 2006 (leaf foliated '202') and from a North American private collector in 2019 (leaf foliated '34'). Text: The two leaves here contain part of the Athanasian Creed (leaf foliated '202') and prayers, including one to Christ 'Iuste iudex ihesu Christe rex regum et domine ...' (leaf foliated '34').
Two leaves from an early Psalter-Hours, with numerous penwork drolleries of a hanged man, a cow chased by a dog playing a musical instrument and others, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Flanders, or perhaps Rhineland, third quarter of the thirteenth century] Two leaves, each with single column of 20 lines in an angular early gothic bookhand, 2-line initials in blue or gold with contrasting penwork, the leaf with modern foliation '34' in upper outer corner with a large initial 'I' (opening 'Iuste iudex ...', see below) formed from a youthful David holding a sword and standing within a green tower topped with a gold parapet, a red and green dragon biting at the foot of the tower, and another penwork dragon used as a line-filler, other geometric line-fillers in colours and gold, this leaf somewhat stained in centre, discoloured and cockled, trimmed at top removing top of parapet and at innermost edge removing part of tail of dragon; and the leaf with modern foliation '202' with penwork scene of a man being hung in the upper margin, with a figure each side drawing up ropes as he dangles from a scaffold, a cow with a bell around its neck being chased by a dog, as the cow plays a musical instrument (perhaps a hirtenschalmei, a shepherd's shawm, as often played by rustics in medieval art), and three other bird-headed drolleries, one of whom plays a similar instrument, two contemporary repairs, and similar trimming at head removing the top of the hanging scene; both overall fair and presentable condition, 177 by 134mm. Provenance: 1. Produced as a lavish commission for a nun (one of the collects of another leaf mentioning 'our abbess'), most probably in Flanders or the Rhineland (with previous attempts at localisation including England, eastern France and lower Lorraine). The opulent level of decoration has been taken to suggest that the original owner of the book may have been royal. 2. Broken and widely dispersed in the 1960s, with leaves in the collection of Carl Richartz, Amsterdam by 1966. A part of this dispersal was undertaken by Folio Fine Art, with leaves initially appearing there in their cat. 43 in February 1967, and the leaf foliated '202' here has an erased inscription on its reverse recording their stock number 'MS 2617', and a price: '£10.10. 0'. Alan Thomas and Maggs also sold leaves in this decade (see P. Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, II, 2019, no. 20, and the list of known leaves in Sotheby's, 7 July 2015, lot 13, not including these here). 3. These leaves acquired from a UK private collector in 2006 (leaf foliated '202') and from a North American private collector in 2019 (leaf foliated '34'). Text: The two leaves here contain part of the Athanasian Creed (leaf foliated '202') and prayers, including one to Christ 'Iuste iudex ihesu Christe rex regum et domine ...' (leaf foliated '34').
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.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
