[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS]. BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin. [Southern Netherlands (Ghent or Bruges), c.1460].

92 x 64mm, 241 leaves, on vellum. 14 lines in black ink written in a gothic bookhand; rubrics in red. One-line initials in burnished gold flourished with black and in blue flourished with red; two-line initials in burnished gold against grounds and infills of pink and blue with white decoration; 13 LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS set within pink initials patterned with white within a blue and gold frame, with burnished gold inner bar borders connecting upper & lower floral borders of acanthus and flowers in blue, green, red, pink and liquid gold (several historiated with birds); 4 LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS in pink patterned with white and foliate infills of blue, pink and white on gold grounds, two with full floral border, the others with burnished gold inner bar borders connecting upper & lower floral borders. (Some pigments rubbed away on one full border, other occasional marginal wear and soiling). Bound in early 18th or 19th-century crimson velvet; felt-lined cloth folding case.

PROVENANCE:

1. The calendar suggests a model from the southern Netherlands, perhaps Bruges, including Amand in red (6 February), Gertrude (16 March), Basil in red (13 June), Eligius in red (25 June and 1 December), Bertin (5 September), Remy and Bavo in red (1 October), Donatian, the patron of Bruges, in red (13 October), Livinus of Ghent (11 November) and Nicaise in red (13 December). Amalberga also appears in the Litany. The texts are all very standard and the book was probably made for the open market at home or abroad.

2. William Henry Jervis Wegg (initialed note on front flyleaf: “Dr. M. R. James considers this a very beautiful example of Franco-Flemish work”, sold Sotheby’s April 29, 1941, lot 430).