Anonymous northern English illuminators - photo 1
Anonymous northern English illuminators - photo 2
Anonymous northern English illuminators - photo 3
Anonymous northern English illuminators - photo 4

Anonymous northern English illuminators

Lot 115
12.12.2022 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 4 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 869522
Lot 115 | Anonymous northern English illuminators
Estimate value
£ 5 000 – 8 000
Anonymous northern English illuminators
St Michael the Archangel in a historiated initial on one of two leaves from a Breviary in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, early 15th century].
A charming and rare example of figurative decoration in an English Breviary.

c.250 × 205mm. 2 columns of 45 lines, the text of one leaf comprising saints’ feasts for 25–29 September, i.e. Sts Firminus, Cyprian & Justina, Cosmas & Damian, and Michael (‘sue tempore sepe eum per vicos dirigebat […] Sancti Michaelis archangeli ad vesperas super psalmos antiphona. Excelsi regis filium […] Tunc eat processio ad altare’), the other leaf covering feasts for 10–19 May, i.e. Gordian & Epimachus, Nereus & Achilleus, Pancras, Potentiana, and Dunstan (‘scriptum relinqueret […] Dunstanus divinis intendens, audivit vocem’), with text for John of Beverley, bishop of York (7 May) added in the lower margin (some dirt, stains, folds, and wear, and the upper extremity of the illumination slightly cropped)

Provenance:
(1) The addition of John of Beverley has previously been taken to suggest an origin in the diocese of York (and this is perhaps supported by the style of illumination), but conversely his omission from the original text is stronger evidence that it was not produced in the north of England, and simply reflects the fact that the manuscript was probably written before his feast was promoted in the Province of Canterbury (and Use of Sarum) in 1416. It is also notable that John of Beverly is treated as a minor feast with only one proper reading, the rest to be taken from the Common of Saints.
(2) Said to be from the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps, which is plausible but the evidence is not now apparent.
(3) Colker MS 318; acquired in 1984 from B.M. Rosenthal.

Illumination:
A four-line initial depicts St Michael as a seraph, his body covered with wings. He is difficult to localise on iconographic or stylistic grounds: angels with their bodies covered with feathers are a characteristic of stained glass, sculpture, and painting in many East Anglian churches, while the facial type is similar to that of some figures in a Book of Hours perhaps made in York (York Minster, MS 2, on which see K. Scott, Gothic Manuscripts 1390–1490, 1996, no 33).
Genre:Religious genre
Place of origin:United Kingdom
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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28.11.2022 – 12.12.2022
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