Manuscript illuminationThere are 18 items
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Catalogue of very important illuminated manuscripts and printed books selected from the renowned library formed by Baron Horace de Landau (1824-1903), maintained and augmented by his niece Madame Finaly, of Florence (d. 1938) and now sold in accordance with the terms of her will and on the instructions of her heirs, the present owners § The second portion: the famous musical collection § The third portion (catalogues of selections from the Landau-Finaly library, sold in London, by Sotheby & Co., 12 July 1948-31 October 1949)
London, Sotheby & Co., 1948-1949Three parts in one volume (25 cm), I (12-13 July 1948): 82 (6) pp., frontispiece, 50 plates (pls.I-L, some folding), text illustrations. Lots numbered 1-129. Errata and Addenda sheet tipped in. II (17-18 October 1949): pp. (2) 87-157 (1), 22 leaves of plates (pls.I-XXII), text illustrations. Lots numbered 130-446. III: (31 October 1949): pp. (2) 161-185 (1), [6] plates, text illustrations. Lots numbered 447-589. Lists of prices and buyers’ names are bound in (list for First portion in photocopy). Morocco-backed boards, a collector’s binding (original upper wrappers bound in). - The first post-War sale in Britain of a foreign library. The most important of the printed books was (lot 23) the 1462 Mainz Bible on vellum (acquired by Baron Landau for £400 at the Firmin-Didot sale in Paris, 12 June 1882), which sold to Quaritch for £15,400. To commemorate the sale, Sotheby’s reprinted Part I (only) on fine paper, with buyers’ names and prices printed in red in the margins (edition limited to 100 copies). ¶ Occasional pencil annotation. Attractive copy. -
Catalogue of nineteen highly distinguished Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts of the 10th to the 16th Century and two printed books on manuscripts, the property of Sir Sydney Cockerell, Litt.D. (catalogue for an auction conducted by Sotheby & Co., London, 3 April 1957)
London, Sotheby & Co., 1957(25 cm), 28 pp., 16 leaves of plates (including frontispiece). 21 lots. Publisher’s green printed wrappers. - “The high prices realized testified to the owner’s great reputation as a connoisseur, while a comparison with prices brought in earlier days by the same MSS testified equally to his shrewd judgment as a buyer” (from a saleroom report in The Book Collector, Autumn 1957, p.287). A tenth-century English manuscript of Boethius was bought by Eisemann for the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana for £6600; a manuscript of Plato’s Dialogues by the humanist scholar Leonardo Aretino was bought for stock by Arthur Rau for £5800 (sold in March 1958 to the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana; now Ms 136). Further manuscripts were sold by Sotheby’s on 19 May 1958. Cockerell’s unique collection of books from the Kelmscott Press, the Ashendene Press, the Doves Press, and others, had been sold at Sotheby’s on 10 December 1956. Cf. Richard A. Linenthal, “Sydney Cockerell: bookseller in all but name” in Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, volume 13 (2007), pp.363-386. ¶ Title inscribed: J.C.C. Taylor. Priced in pencil, with buyers’ names and sale total (£27,315). -
The Dyson Perrins Collection : Part I : Catalogue of forty-five exceptionally important illuminated manuscripts of the 9th to the 18th century, a Block book, and four printed books § Part II : Catalogue of forty-six Western and Oriental illuminated manuscripts § Part III : Catalogue of fifty-nine illuminated manuscripts (catalogues for auctions conducted by Sotheby & Co., London, 9 December 1958-29 November 1962)
London, Sotheby & Co., 1958-1962Three volumes (28.5-29.5 cm), I (9 December 1958): 107 (1) pp., frontispiece-portrait, 6 colour plates (pls.A-F), 55 p. of black & white plates (pls.1-55). Lots numbered 1-50. II (1 December 1959): 109 (1) pp., colour frontispiece (lot 58), 5 colour plates (pls.A-E), 48 p. of black & white plates (pls.1-48, some folding). Lots numbered 51-96. List of prices realised and buyers’ names loosely inserted. III (29 November 1962): 137 (1) pp., 6 colour plates (pls.A-F, with A bound as frontispiece), 64 p. of black & white plates (pls.1-64). Lots numbered 97-155. Publisher’s printed boards. - Magnificent collection of illuminated manuscripts, almost all gathered between 1900 and 1920 (33 had been purchased en bloc in 1906 from Fairfax Murray); “Already in 1908, when the Burlington Fine Arts Club held its famous exhibition, fifty of Mr Perrins’s MSS. were selected for inclusion in it” (Percy Muir, “Private Libraries, XXIV: Mr C.W. Dyson Perrins, I: The Illuminated Manuscripts” in The Times Literary Supplement, 17 February 1940, p.92). “Perrins was a collector of the vintage and calibre of Yates Thompson, Fairfax Murray and Pierpont Morgan – giants beside whom even Sir Sydney Cockerell and St John Hornby seem of human size – and one whose place such contemporary collectors of Mss as Dr Martin Bodmer, Mr William S. Glazier and Major J.R. Abbey can hardly aspire to fill… There are, indeed, fine Renaissance Mss still on the shelves at Holkham and other English and Scottish houses. It is theoretically possible that the Bibliothèque Nationale or the Bodleian or the Morgan Library might go bankrupt and be sold up; but to the extent that any department of bibliophily depends on the periodic return to the market of treasures which nowadays gravitate ever more frequently to institutional ownership, this sale, and the two to come may well prove to be not merely a landmark but a terminal” (The Book Collector, Winter 1958, pp.354-355). ¶ Very good copies. -
Bibliotheca Phillippica; Medieval manuscripts. New series: first part. Catalogue of thirty-nine manuscripts of the 9th to the 16th century from the celebrated collection formed by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), the property of the Trustees of the Robinson Trust § Second part. Catalogue of forty-four manuscripts of the 9th to the 17th century § Third part. Catalogue of forty-two manuscripts of the 7th to the 17th century § Fourth part. Catalogue of Persian, Turkish and Arabic manuscripts, Indian and Persian miniatures § Fifth part. Manuscripts on papyrus, vellum and paper of the 13th century B.C. to the 18th century A.D. § Sixth part. Catalogue of manuscripts on papyrus, vellum and paper of the 7th century to the 18th century § Seventh part. Catalogue of manuscripts on vellum, paper and linen of the 3rd century B.C. to the 17th century A.D. § Eighth part. Catalogue of manuscripts on vellum, paper and papyrus of the 4th to the 17th century § Ninth part. Catalogue of Oriental manuscripts, Indian and Persian miniatures § Tenth part. Catalogue of manuscripts on papyrus, vellum and paper § Eleventh part. Catalogue of manuscripts on papyrus, vellum and paper (catalogues for auctions sales conducted by Sotheby's, London, 1965-1976)
London, Sotheby & Co., 1965-1976Eleven volumes (28.5 cm), as issued, in the publisher’s green printed boards. - “The catalogues, rich in bibliographical and textual notes, and amply illustrated, for which Mr [Anthony] Hobson and his staff have been responsible, are themselves items which in years to come will be sought after by the book collector” (The Times, London, 7 August 1976, p.12). Hobson’s memoir, “The Phillipps sales”, appears in Out of print & into profit: a history of the rare and secondhand book trade in Britain in the twentieth century (London 2006), pp.157-164. ¶ Excellent, unmarked copies, albeit with just four (of eleven) printed Price lists. -
The Chester Beatty Western manuscripts : Part I : Catalogue of thirty-seven illuminated manuscripts of the 9th to the 16th century § The Chester Beatty Western manuscripts : Part II : Catalogue of thirty-eight illuminated manuscripts of the 8th to the 17th century (catalogues for auctions conducted by Sotheby & Co., London, 3 December 1968 and 24 June 1969)
London, Sotheby & Co., 1968-1969Two volumes (29 cm), I (3 December 1968): 105 (3) pp., black & white portrait-frontispiece, [5] colour plates, 48 black & white plates (pls.1-48). Lots numbered 1-37. II (24 June 1969): 109 (3) pp., colour frontispiece, 6 colour plates (pls.A-F), 47 black & white plates (pls.1-47). Lots numbered 38-75. Publisher’s printed green boards. - Catalogue for a portion of the library of the American mining engineer Alfred Chester Beatty, mostly Phillipps manuscripts which he had acquired during the 1920s from Fitzroy Fenwick at Thirlestaine House (Christopher de Hamel, “Chester Beatty and the Phillipps Manuscripts” in The Book Collector, Autumn 1991, pp.358-370). ¶ Price list lacking for Part II. Attractive, unmarked copies. -
I codici miniati medievali della Biblioteca Comunale e dell'Accademia Etrusca di Cortona
Florence, SPES / Studio per Edizioni Scelte, 1977(30.5 cm), xxii, 161 pp., illustrations. Publisher’s printed wrapper, pictorial dust jacket. - Study of twenty-one 12th-14th century manuscripts, with preliminary essays by Maria Grazia Ciardi Duprè Dal Poggetto (Introduzione critica alla storia della miniatura) and Nicola Frustoloni (L’ambiente storico dei codici Francescani di Cortona). ¶ Top and bottom edges of wrapper shelf worn; otherwise a very good, unmarked copy. -
Pen to press : illustrated manuscripts and printed books in the first century of printing (catalogue of an exhibition held in the Art Department Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, 15 September-23 October 1977)
College Park, MD, University of Maryland Art Department, 1977(26 cm), 234 pp., [39] leaves of plates (some in colour). Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Catalogue for a loan exhibition of books and manuscripts gathered to demonstrate the interplay of manuscript and printed book during the first century of printing from movable type. The checklist is enhanced by three essays, the first by Farquhar (The Manuscript as a Book) and the other two by Hindman (Cross Fertilization: Experiments in Mixing the Media; Authors, Artists, and Audiences). ¶ Gift inscription on half-title; a few annotations in margins. The white wrappers are finger-marked. -
A treatise concerning the arte of limning by Nicholas Hilliard. Together with A more compendious discourse concerning ye art of liming [sic] by Edward Norgate; with a parallel modernized text edited by R.K.R. Thornton and T.G.S. Cain
Ashington, Northumberland, Mid Northumberland Arts Group / Carcanet New Press, 1981(22.5 cm), 139 (1) pp., illustrations (some in colour). Publisher’s boards, dust jacket. - First edition. The manuscript containing Hilliard’s Treatise and Norgate’s Compendious Discourse is in Edinburgh University Library, Laing III, 174. ¶ Very good, unmarked copy. -
Catalogue of twenty Western illuminated manuscripts from the fifth to fifteenth century from the library at Donaueschingen; the property of His Serene Highness the Prince Fürstenberg (catalogue for an auction conducted by Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London, 21 June 1982)
London, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., 1982(28 cm), 127 (9) pp., illustrations (some in colour). 20 lots. Printed List of estimates loosely inserted. Publisher’s plain yellow interim wrappers. - Sale catalogue of twenty manuscripts from the Fürstlich-Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek in Donaueschingen, Baden-Württemberg. All twenty found buyers; Kraus paid £220,000 for an eighth-century manuscript of Orosius’s History of the World, written at Corbie Abbey, and £308,000 for the Sacramentary of Augsburg Cathedral, written c. 1000-1030. Six fragments of a vellum sheet from a 5th century Bible, the oldest known manuscript of the Old Testament in Latin, were bought by Winsor T. Savery for £17,600 (saleroom report in The Times, 22 June 1982, p.2). The sale realised £1,032,020. “The catalogue and the estimates represent a new peak of scholarly and commercial precision” (The Book Collector, volume 31, 1982, p.346). In 1993, Sotheby’s negotiated the sale of the remaining manuscripts to Baden-Württemberg, for DM 48m (Bewahrtes Kulturerbe, “unberechenbare Zinsen”: Katalog zur Ausstellung der vom Land Baden-Württemberg erworbenen Handschriften der Fürstlich Fürstenbergischen Hofbibliothek, edited by Felix Heinzer, Stuttgart 1993). ¶ Rare “advance copy”, issued in plain yellow-paper wrappers. Annotated with prices and buyers’ names. -
Handschriften en Oude Drukken van de Utrechtse Universiteitsbibliotheek (catalogue of an exhibition in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht)
Utrecht, HES / Universiteitsbibliotheek, 1984(22.5 cm), 392 pp., illustrations. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - Selection of 4th-20th century manuscripts, including illuminated manuscripts, and 15th-18th century books from the Utrecht University Library, compiled on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of its foundation; 210 catalogue entries. The book contains short essays on bequests and on the libraries of Utrecht chapters and monasteries which formed the basis of the Bibliotheek. Full catalogue entries with commentaries and illustrations of most books and manuscripts. Second edition of the catalogue, with the addition of a list of corrections (pp.391-392). ¶ Very good copy. -
Hidden friends : a loan exhibition of the Comites Latentes Collection of illuminated manuscripts from the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Geneva. On view at Sotheby's on the occasion of the Colloque of the Comité International de Paléographie (catalogue of an exhibition held at Sotheby's, London, 20-28 September 1985)
London, Sotheby's, 1985(27 cm), [66] pp., illustrations (some in colour). 43 catalogue entries. Publisher’s wrappers. - Exhibition of selected manuscripts from the large collection (over 300 items) assembled by Sion Segre Amar (1910-2002), deposited since 1977 in the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, Geneva. The exhibition is organised around the theme of collectors and connoisseurs of illuminated manuscripts and illustrates numerous marks of ownership. ¶ Very good, unmarked copy. -
The Estelle Doheny collection from the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library, St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, California, sold on behalf of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Part II: Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts (catalogue for an auction conducted by Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 2 December 1987)
New York, Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc., 1987(31 cm), 125 (7) pp., illustrations (most in colour). Lots numbered 137-182. Publisher’s printed boards. - “Maggs bought the Zacharias Chrysopolitanus, a 12th century Southern English manuscript with initials of considerable quality if uncertain provenance, for £1,700,000, for a buyer resident in England [Paul Getty]. Berès, on the other hand, took back to France a very fine ‘Toryesque’ Hours at £800,000, and the Battista Agnese Portolan went to Scheler at £600,000. Although these were the highest prices, they were not far out of the way, the Liesborn Gospels, German, 10th century, with an odd binding (one carved wooden board, the other 15th century calf), went at £380,000 to Ferrini [by 2015 migrated to Les Enluminures, The Idda Collection: Romanesque Biblical Manuscripts c. 1000 to 1240, item 1] who also bought an elaborate Parisian ‘Bible Historiale’ (£260,000). Tenschert bought the fine Speculum B.V.M., 13th century (£210,000), and, at £160,000 (a remarkable price) an exceptionally fine Parisian Bible, late 13th century. Ferrini and Tenschert also bought a number of lesser lots, also above estimate” (saleroom report in The Book Collector, Spring 1988, p.99). ¶ Annotated copy, priced. No Price list. -
The Bernard H. Breslauer Collection of manuscript illuminations (catalogue of an exhibition held in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 9 December 1992-4 April 1993)
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1992(31 cm), 253 (1) pp., including [46] p. of colour plates, numerous black & white illustrations. 104 catalogue entries. Publisher’s laminated pictorial wrappers. - The short introduction is an apologia for the collecting of single leaves from manuscripts, a practice with respectable antecedents in the 15th century, which has acquired since pejorative overtones. ¶ Excellent copy. -
The Beck Collection of Illuminated Manuscripts (catalogue for an auction conducted by Sotheby's, London, 16 June 1997)
London, Sotheby's, 1997(28 cm), 261 (13) pp., illustrations (most in colour). 34 lots. List of prices realised loosely inserted. Publisher’s printed boards. - The sale realised £11,158,415, at the time a record price for a collection of manuscripts at auction. “Three bidders, all anonymous, scooped the pool”, one acquiring “three of the greatest manuscripts ever likely to be available”: the Carolingian Gospel book (£1m), the Psalter of Mechthild von Anhalt (£1.7m), and the Psalter St Blasien (£2.3m); the second bought the thirteenth-century Rhenish astronomic texts (£190,000), the Rothschild Bible (£42,000), and the Jacques de Longuyon, “Voeux de Paon” (£150,000); while the third bidder bought the Utrecht Book of Hours from the Cockerell and Abbey collections (£910,000), the Master of Guillebert de Mets Book of Hours (£380,000), the Popincourt Master Book of Hours (£80,000), the c. 1490 Florentine Book of Hours from the Blandford (White Knights) and Esmerian collections (£800,000). Sam Fogg was seen to buy three lots; Quaritch and Maggs one each; Günther, Ferrini and Tenschert some others (quotations from saleroom report in The Book Collector, Autumn 1997, pp.397-401). ¶ Unmarked copy. -
A selection of illuminated manuscripts from the 13th to the 16th centuries [other title:] Property of Mr. J.R. Ritman and sold for the benefit of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (catalogue of an auction conducted by Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2000)
London, Sotheby’s, 2000(27 cm), 264 pp., illustrations (some in colour). 57 lots. Price list loosely inserted. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Included in sale were 26 Books of Hours; the highest price was achieved for a copiously illuminated 14th-century Metz Hours, £200,000 (against the reserve; subsequently in Tenschert’s Catalogue 23, 2001, item 2; and Sourget’s Catalogue 29, 2004, item 1). Saleroom report in The Book Collector, Autumn 2000, p.408. First “selection” only (second and third sales were conducted by Sotheby’s on 19 June 2001 and 17 June 2003). ¶ Annotated, partly priced. -
Dated & datable English manuscript borders c. 1395-1499
London, Bibliographical Society / British Library, 2002(24.5 cm), 132 pp., illustrations (some in colour). Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - “A sourcebook and vade-mecum for comparing dated styles of borders with undated borders and for helping to estimate the period, at least to a quarter century and sometimes less, in which a late medieval English manuscript was produced and decorated. In some instances the handbook also provides a locale or probable locale in which the border originated” (publisher’s advertisement). A useful Glossary (pp.121-125). ¶ Very good, unmarked copy. -
The earliest books of Canterbury Cathedral : manuscripts and fragments to c. 1200
London, Bibliographical Society / British Library / Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, 2008(25 cm), 414 pp., 50 colour plates. Publisher’s boards, dust jacket. - Introduction tracing the history of book-production in Canterbury and descriptions of forty-two manuscripts, the earliest a fragment of a large-format Anglo-Saxon Bible. ¶ Very good, unmarked copy. -
Three Renaissance masterworks from Chatsworth (catalogue for an auction conducted by Sotheby's, London, 5 December 2012)
London, Sotheby's, 2012(29.5 × 23 cm), 95 (1) pp., illustrations (most in colour). 3 lots. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Offprint (lots 50-52) from Sotheby’s sale of Old Master and British Paintings, 5 December 2012. Lot 50: Philip the Good’s copy of Mystère de la Vengeance (illuminated Ms on vellum, southern Netherlands, c. 1465); lot 51: Louis de Gruuthuse’s copy of the Deeds of Sir Gillion de Trazegnies in the Middle East (illuminated Ms on vellum, southern Netherlands, dated 1464); lot 52: a black chalk drawing, Head of a Young Apostle, by Raphael (realised £29.7 million, almost three times the pre-sale estimate of £10-15 million). ¶ Unmarked copy.
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