Three sparkling Book of Hours leaves with gold-accented foliate borders and large pink and blue initials, closely resembling manuscripts from Willem Vrelant’s circle.

c. 174 × 112 mm. Three leaves, ruled in red ink for sixteen lines (justification: 96 × 66), foliated in upper right margin “14,” “57,” and “62” in modern pencil by two different hands, written in dark brown ink in a small gothic liturgical script, versal initials in blue and burnished gold with penwork in red and black, two-line initials in burnished gold on blue and red grounds with white filigree infill, illuminated borders sprouting from illuminated bars, containing colored and burnished gold flowers, fruits, and ivy leaves on black hairline sprays. Light wear to margins of leaves, pigments and gold remain vibrant.
 
These three Book of Hours leaves, created circa 1460, display a characteristically Bruges illumination style. Each leaf features large painted initials in gold on pink and blue and blue ground with delicate white penwork tracery, and the margins are filled with full foliate borders of curling ivy-vine tendrils, colorful flowers, and acanthus leaves accented in gold. This decorative vocabulary – the gilded rinceaux initials and densely illuminated floral borders – closely parallels mid-fifteenth-century Bruges workmanship, as seen in works by Willem Vrelant such as the Llangattock Hours (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig IX 7), illuminated in Bruges c. 1450. The texts on the leaves contain content from the Penitential Psalms (Psalm 130: De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine) and the Little Office of the Virgin (Memento salutis Auctor, quod nostri quondam corporis).
 
Provenance
(1) Sotheby’s London, 6 July 2004, lot 22

(2) Private collection.

Sister leaves
Sister leaves from this same manuscript have appeared in various sales, including Sotheby’s London 6 July 2004, lot 279, and 6 December 2005, lot 366; these show identical dimensions, decoration, and script, and likely come from the same Book of Hours produced in Bruges for Roman use.

LITERATURE
Unpublished; for Willem Vrelant and his circle see: Antoine De Schryver, “Willem Vrelant et son atelier à Bruges,” Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art 51 (1982), pp. 3–46; Bernard Bousmanne, Item a Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur ». Willem Vrelant. Un aspect de l'enluminure dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous le mécénat des ducs de Bourgogne, Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire, Brussels and Turnhout, 1997; Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, eds., Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, Los Angeles, 2003; Annemie Willemsen, Miniatures flamandes: 1404–1482, Brussels, 2011.

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale and Elliot Adam for consultation on this entry.