[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 1
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 2
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 3
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 4
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 5
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 6
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 7
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] - photo 8

[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)]

Lot 19
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 30 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 870865
Lot 19 | [Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)]
Estimate value
£ 30 000 – 50 000
[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)]

Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts. Western Europe: XII-XVI Century [compiled Cleveland, c.1950-52]

Set no 18 of Otto Ege’s most ambitious and famous portfolio collection of manuscript leaves from 12th- to 16th- century Europe, Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts.



50 manuscript leaves on vellum [Europe, 12th-16th century], various sizes (91 x 61mm to 457 x 323mm), some leaves with decorated or illuminated initials and borders, 7 with musical notation (scattered small stains and marginal tears across the collection); two copies of the printed introductory leaf describing the collection and listing its contents, each manuscript leaf hinged to a paper mount with a printed description on an attached slip (some finger soiling to the introductory leaves and mounts, some of the slips a little creased). In the original brown buckram box, no 18 of 40 numbered sets (the edges of the box slightly rubbed, the title-plate a little scuffed).



Provenance:

(1) Otto F Ege (1888-1951).

(2) Set no 18 was listed as 'untraced' by Scott Gwara in 2013, along with nine other of the 40 sets.



Otto F. Ege (1888-1951), Dean of the Cleveland Institute of Art, lecturer on the History of the Book at Western Reserve University and self-proclaimed biblioclast, created the 20th-century market for medieval manuscript leaves in America: alongside his wife, Louise, and with the help of the bookseller Philip Duschnes, he purchased, took apart and dispersed hundreds of manuscripts and early printed books between 1917 and 1950, first focusing on the placement of individual leaves with private collectors and in public institutions before moving, in the 1940s, into the compilation of portfolios of leaves from ‘great books’ of the 12th to 16th centuries. Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts is the most famous and ambitious of these compilations; conceived around 1947, the edition comprised 40 sets of 50 leaves, taken from imperfect or incomplete manuscripts collected by Ege across the preceding four decades (see Scott Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts: A Study of Ege's Manuscript Collections, Portfolios, and Retail Trade, 2013, pp.44-49, for more information on FOL). Fifty Original Leaves probably represents the full realisation of Ege’s overarching aims, as stated in a 1938 article in the journal Avocations: ‘to search for and make available to schools, libraries, collections, and individuals single leaves or units of mediaeval manuscripts, incunabula works, and fine presses; […] To encourage and inspire by these fragments […]’. He died before the portfolio could be completed and issued, however, so the venture was brought to fruition by Louise.



The parent manuscripts range from a 12th-century Bible to a 16th-century Book of Hours; the highlight of Fifty Original Leaves is generally considered to be the Beauvais Missal (no 15), a famous illuminated missal owned by Beauvais Cathedral in the 14th century and William Randolph Hearst in the 20th, and our set contains an attractive example with two illuminated initials.





Special notice


This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
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10.12.2022 – 13.12.2022
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