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Auction archive: Lot number 38

Leaves from the Tollemache-Wardington Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Franc

Estimate
£7,000 - £9,000
ca. US$9,697 - US$12,468
Price realised:
£7,000
ca. US$9,697
Auction archive: Lot number 38

Leaves from the Tollemache-Wardington Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Franc

Estimate
£7,000 - £9,000
ca. US$9,697 - US$12,468
Price realised:
£7,000
ca. US$9,697
Beschreibung:

Leaves from the Tollemache-Wardington Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (Paris), mid-thirteenth century] Seven single leaves, each with double column of 55 lines, red rubrics, versal numbers and running titles in alternate red or blue initials, 2-line initials in same with alternate colour penwork, other 2- to 4-line initials in colours heightened with white penwork and enclosing foliage and gold bezants, all leaves here with a historiated initial in pink of blue heightened with white penwork, and on coloured and burnished gold grounds, these: (1) original folio no. 222r, with Christ seated holding a book and blessing (with a sketch in drypoint gloss in the adjacent margin for the illuminator: see below); (2) original folio no. 243v, Ecclesia holding a chalice (with a drypoint gloss sketch); (3) original folio no. 298v, Ezekiel dreaming of the man, ox eagle and lion (with a drypoint gloss sketch); (4) original folio no. 332r, Habakkuk (without sketch); (5) original folio no. 337v, Malachi preaching to a group of onlookers (with a faint drypoint gloss sketch); (6) original folio no. 368v, Mark within a tower standing above his attribute (without sketch); (7) original folio no. 432r, St. Peter with key (without sketch); slight cockling at edges, a few small spots and stains, else excellent and fresh condition, approximately 200 by 137mm. Provenance: 1. Written and illuminated in northern France (Paris) in the mid-thirteenth century, perhaps by an English scribe studying there: the word 'evangelium' here on leaf no. (6) above is spelt with a 'w' instead of a 'v', a feature normally associated with scribes and readers from England or the Low Countries. 2. Certainly in use in England in the Middle Ages, with the signatures of 'J. Doys', and 'John Paxten doone thys bok', the latter in a fifteenth-century hand. 3. The Tollemache family, Helmingham Hall, Suffolk. There were already manuscripts at Helmingham before the Reformation, and many others were gathered in from local East Anglian collections by Sir Lionel Tollemache who succeeded his father in 1575 and died in 1612. This parent volume once in a binding made for the fourth Earl of Dysart (1708-1770), after his succession in 1727, and with shelfmark L.J.II.14 (IV.14). Most probably sold in the 1950s by the Robinsons Bros. 4. Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, Lord Wardington (1924-2005); then Christie's, 8 December 1982, lot 139. 5. Comites Latentes collection, Geneva, MS.203; then Sotheby's, 1 December 1998, lot 72, and dispersed, most probably by the North American trade. Illumination: The illumination here is in the style of the Soissons Atelier, defined by R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, 1977, pp. 77-8 and 216-17, a workshop which evidently specialised in the illumination of Bibles. What is notable here is that many of the scenes within the historiated initials survive alongside the original dry-point sketches for the main artist to follow. For other such marks see J.J.G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work, 1992, pp.184-5.

Auction archive: Lot number 38
Auction:
Datum:
6 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
Beschreibung:

Leaves from the Tollemache-Wardington Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (Paris), mid-thirteenth century] Seven single leaves, each with double column of 55 lines, red rubrics, versal numbers and running titles in alternate red or blue initials, 2-line initials in same with alternate colour penwork, other 2- to 4-line initials in colours heightened with white penwork and enclosing foliage and gold bezants, all leaves here with a historiated initial in pink of blue heightened with white penwork, and on coloured and burnished gold grounds, these: (1) original folio no. 222r, with Christ seated holding a book and blessing (with a sketch in drypoint gloss in the adjacent margin for the illuminator: see below); (2) original folio no. 243v, Ecclesia holding a chalice (with a drypoint gloss sketch); (3) original folio no. 298v, Ezekiel dreaming of the man, ox eagle and lion (with a drypoint gloss sketch); (4) original folio no. 332r, Habakkuk (without sketch); (5) original folio no. 337v, Malachi preaching to a group of onlookers (with a faint drypoint gloss sketch); (6) original folio no. 368v, Mark within a tower standing above his attribute (without sketch); (7) original folio no. 432r, St. Peter with key (without sketch); slight cockling at edges, a few small spots and stains, else excellent and fresh condition, approximately 200 by 137mm. Provenance: 1. Written and illuminated in northern France (Paris) in the mid-thirteenth century, perhaps by an English scribe studying there: the word 'evangelium' here on leaf no. (6) above is spelt with a 'w' instead of a 'v', a feature normally associated with scribes and readers from England or the Low Countries. 2. Certainly in use in England in the Middle Ages, with the signatures of 'J. Doys', and 'John Paxten doone thys bok', the latter in a fifteenth-century hand. 3. The Tollemache family, Helmingham Hall, Suffolk. There were already manuscripts at Helmingham before the Reformation, and many others were gathered in from local East Anglian collections by Sir Lionel Tollemache who succeeded his father in 1575 and died in 1612. This parent volume once in a binding made for the fourth Earl of Dysart (1708-1770), after his succession in 1727, and with shelfmark L.J.II.14 (IV.14). Most probably sold in the 1950s by the Robinsons Bros. 4. Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, Lord Wardington (1924-2005); then Christie's, 8 December 1982, lot 139. 5. Comites Latentes collection, Geneva, MS.203; then Sotheby's, 1 December 1998, lot 72, and dispersed, most probably by the North American trade. Illumination: The illumination here is in the style of the Soissons Atelier, defined by R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, 1977, pp. 77-8 and 216-17, a workshop which evidently specialised in the illumination of Bibles. What is notable here is that many of the scenes within the historiated initials survive alongside the original dry-point sketches for the main artist to follow. For other such marks see J.J.G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work, 1992, pp.184-5.

Auction archive: Lot number 38
Auction:
Datum:
6 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
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