Anonymous German artist - photo 1
Anonymous German artist - photo 2
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Anonymous German artist

Lot 18
30.07.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 30 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 381225
Lot 18 | Anonymous German artist
Estimate value
£ 25 000 – 35 000
SCHEMBART BOOK, in German, illustrated manuscript on paper [Nuremberg, c.1540]

bound with LEOPOLD I, Grant of Arms in favour of Johann Christoph Lempen, in German, Schloss Pressburg, 1688.

A substantial attractively illustrated fragment of a Schembart Book, a pictorial representation of Nuremberg's most celebrated public spectacle. The Schembart Lauf was a carnival parade for Shrove Tuesday that originated in 1349 as a privilege granted by the emperor Charles IV to the butcher's guild of Nuremberg. Sometimes riotous (the dancers would run through the streets in extravagant costumes brandishing lances and bunches of leaves that concealed fireworks), the event was banned in 1539. Books recording the carnival's participants and their different costumes from year to year started to be made almost immediately after the Schembart Lauf was banned in an attempt to get the festival restored.

305 x 205mm, 36 leaves (of 64), 36 full-page illustrations in colour showing masked and costumed figures, some with carnival floats behind them on the rectos with the descriptive text for the year in a german cursive hand on facing versos, a 20th-century checklist of years pasted inside front cover (corner lacking and hole in shield on f.36, small losses from lower edges of two other leaves, some light staining and spotting, 9 leaves with addition of hearts and/or monograms KSR and CS); 8 leaves with grant of nobility and right to bear arms of Johann Christoph Lempen, written in a cursive German hand and authenticated by public notary Iohannes Philippus Leisner and with his engraved impresa and paper seal on final verso, armorial miniature with Lempen's crested coat of arms between the figures of justice and fortitude, beneath a canopy with the imperial arms and against a seascape. 19th-century marbled paper over pasteboard (joint cracking), brown cloth box with leather lettering-piece.

Provenance: (1) Princely House of Liechtenstein: shelfmark inside upper cover and bookplate on f.1v; purchased from H.P. Kraus in 1955. (2) Paul Gourary (d.2007): his ex-libris, sold at Christie's New York, Splendid Ceremonies, The Paul and Marianne Gourary collection of illustrated Fête books, 12 June 2009, lot 312.

Full-page illustrations for the years: 1472, 1475, 1473, 1474, 1476, 1477, 1478, 1479, 1481, 1482, 1484, 1490, 1493, 1495, 1496, 1497, 1498, 1499, 1503, 1504, 1506, 1507, 1508, 1509, 1510, 1511, 1512, 1513, 1514 1515, 1516, 1517, 1520, 1521, 1522 and 1523.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.07.2020 – 30.07.2020
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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