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Click here to subscribeThree mixed table lamps, with lamp shades present. Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Selection of mixed electrical items to include Sony digital radio Remington hair dryer etc. Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Panasonic TLX32X15B 32 inch screen TV (remote in office 5220 ). Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Technika 40'' flat screen LED TV with remote and instructions (remote in office 5426). Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
LG 24 inch flat screen TV ( remote in office 5212 ). Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Blaupunkt 24'' LED TV, model no 236/2071 GB 38-HKDUP-UK. Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Hitachi F650 video recorder with remote and original box ( remote in office 5619 ). Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Warrior log effect 1800w electric fire (unchecked). Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Black and Decker electric plane, two battery drills, laser level and Krups plastic bag seater etc. Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
Router table fitted with Bosch 500A router and accessories. Not available for in-house P&P, contact Paul O'Hea at Mailboxes on 01925 659133Condition Report: All electrical items in this lot have been PAT tested for safety and have passed. This does not confirm that the item is in full working order.
A STAINLESS STEEL 'CAPE COD' AUTOMATIC WRISTWATCH, BY HERMÈS, CIRCA 202018-jewel Cal-SW1000 automatic movement, rectangular dial with silvered Arabic numerals, date aperture at 6 o'clock, polished luminous hands, within a conforming steel case with curved openwork lugs with back held by 4 screws, crown with H logo, fitted maker's black alligator strap with signed steel buckle, dial, case and movement signed, serial no. 34255**, ref. CC1.710*, with original fitted display box, guarantee booklet from Hermès, 24, rue du Faubourg St Honoré in Paris dated December 16th 2020, case (including crown): 3cm, length 22.2cm** Subject to CITES regulations when exporting item outside of the EUCondition Report: Glass: no scratches or wear observedCase & lugs: superficial signs of wearStrap: ** Subject to CITES regulations when exporting item outside of the EU; Superficial signs of wearIn running condition at the time of inspectionRetail price: €3,000 (€2,850 without alligator strap)An external watch specialist who verifies each watch prior to each auction in order to open them, checks their working condition, mentions any potential damage, mentions any movement ref numbers etc...For any additional assistance, please refer to the department.
Ɵ Substantial fragment of a Carolingian Homiliary, perhaps that of Paul the Deacon, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [probably western Germany, second quarter of the ninth century]To view a video of this lot, click here. Six leaves (including a bifolium, that forming the outermost leaves here, all others reconstructed into bifolia on small paper guards), each with a single column of 29 or 30 lines of a single fine and elegant Carolingian minuscule (all here 29 lines, except fol. 4 with 30 lines, but all in same hand and clearly from a single parent manuscript), with few abbreviations, the scribe varying the size of his script in places apparently in order to fit words neatly onto the lines, red rubrics and chapter headings, larger initials offset in margin, six large initials in red, a few contemporary corrections and erasures, some small smudges and spots, two leaves with vertical cuts in margin (see below), lower outer corner of fol. 5 repaired with strip of parchment (not paper as in earlier reports), outer edges apparently trimmed, else in excellent condition and on fine, heavy and supple parchment, 305 by 205mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Six leaves from a large and handsome Carolingian codex, surviving the twelve centuries since their creation not through reuse as binding material, but as leaves of a book and thus in an exceptional state of preservation Provenance:1. Written and decorated in a Carolingian scriptorium in the second quarter of the ninth century, most probably in Germany. With letter from Bernard Bischoff, dated 1989, establishing the dating.2. At least three of the leaves here were definitely owned by the manuscript-dealer Bruce Ferrini, and perhaps all these leaves were. A previous report of this manuscript noted that fol. 4 here was acquired by the Schøyen Collection from Ferrini in November 1989, and indeed it bears a pencil stock number of Ferrini's ("VM 5507"). In addition, fols. 2-3 here also bear Ferrini stock numbers ("VM 5508" and "VM 5509"), and the fact that the stock numbers are sequential suggests that Ferrini may have owned several bifolia from the parent manuscript and been bisecting these for individual sale. In the 1990s, the late Jeremy Griffiths suggested that fol. 4 was one of the leaves removed from Montpellier, Bibliothèque municipale, MS H. 240 in the nineteenth century (this most probably due to the fact that of the long list compiled by R. Étaix of homiliaries in French public libraries ['Répertoire des Homéliaires Conservés en France' in Homéliaires Patristiques Latins, 1994], only the Montpellier manuscript agrees with the physical layout of the present leaves). However, the Montpellier manuscript has quite different initials and script to that here. Furthermore, the publication earlier this year of a new study of the Homiliary of Paul the Deacon by Z. Giuliano with an apparently exhaustive list of early manuscripts (including 88 manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries), similarly contains no witness that could have served as the parent codex of these leaves. Finally, no other leaf from the parent codex is known to us, and they do not come from either of the two ninth-century Homiliaries listed in the Schoenberg database as being sold in the twentieth century. Thus, it seems most likely that only a handful of bifolia survived to the modern period, perhaps as part of a sammelband.3. Quaritch of London, who sold leaves 1-3 and 5-6 (the first and last of these the outermost bifolium here) to the Schøyen Collection in December 1989, and these marked up with individual Quaritch stock numbers and price codes.4. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 587, and acquired for that collection in order to protect these leaves from further dispersal. Text:Collections of homilies, or explanations of the Gospels, assembled and ordered for public reading throughout the ecclesiastical year, were fundamental to the medieval Church. The fifth and sixth centuries were dominated in this genre by the early popes, Leo the Great (c. 400-461) and Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), and the eighth century knew a now-lost homiliary composed by a Roman named Agimundus, as well as that of Bede of Wearmouth-Jarrow and that of Alanus, abbot of Farfa, which still survive. The ninth century saw homiliaries written by Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel and Hrabanus Maurus, as well as the grand compilation of Paul the Deacon produced at the behest of Charlemagne. The leaves here are not consecutive, and form three units. The first and last leaves here are parts of the same bifolium (with parts of Leo I, Sermo XCV, and a lection on the Gospel of John by Gregory I, Homilia XXX). The second leaf here contains part of the same text as that on the first leaf here. The third leaf here stands alone, with text from Gregory I, Homilia XXX, a lection on the Gospel of John 14:23-31, and the fourth and fifth leaves both contain parts of a tractatus on Luke by Ambrose, as well as other lections, readings for the Vigil of the Feast of St Peter and the Feast of the Octave of Pentecost and the opening of a sermon of Leo I for Feria IV mensis IV. Both homilies on fols. 1-2 and 3 here are found in the Homiliary of Paul the Deacon, and are not found together in any other homiliary recorded by Étaix. Ninth-century codices and substantial fragments of them are now of the utmost rarity in private hands, and only a tiny number of collectors can expect to acquire such an item in a single lifetime of collecting. Complete or substantially complete codices are now all but gone from private ownership, with Sir Thomas Phillipps' MS. 4558 having passed to Rosenbach in 1926, and thence to Edward Harkness (1874-1952), and on to the New York Public Library. J. Pierpont Morgan was able to secure two, in 1902 (now Morgan Library and Museum, M. 191), and 1927 (M. 728), and the grandest bookseller of the twentieth century, H.P. Kraus, in a lifetime of searching, obtained and sold only three (see his In Retrospect, 1978, nos. 5-7). To these must be added the Gospels of St. Hubert, sold in Sotheby's, 26 November 1985, lot 93, and the Gospels of Queen Theutberga, last appearing in Christie's, 15 July 2015, lot 20, and now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Even fragments of only a few leaves from codices of the ninth century now command high prices, with a fragment of 14 leaves recording the translations and miracles of St. Lomer, written in France c. 873, realising £60,000 hammer in our last Schøyen sale, 8 July 2020, lot 28. Script:The hand here is worth especial mention as a fine example of Carolingian minuscule. It is a model of legibility and elegance, with a rejection of the cacophony of ligatures of the Early Medieval local hands, employing instead ligatures only for 'et' and joining 'ct' and 'st'. The 'g' here is quite distinctive, in a closed form and with a tail commonly with a sharp-tipped 'fish-hook-like' end, as is the majuscule 'N' in which the first ascender is longer, descending far below the line, and the mid bar is horizontal, sitting just above the baseline.
‡ An Orphic poem, inscription in iambic trimeters by one Agestratos, dedicating his traveller's staff to Apollo, most probably in Doric Greek, reverse-impressed into gold foil[probably southern Greece, or just perhaps adjacent Crete, Rhodes or a few cities on the coast of Asia Minor, c. fourth century AD.] Thin gold lamella with rounded corners, with 6 lines of Greek capitals impressed into reverse, some in deliberately archaising forms, margins around all sides indicating the whole text is preserved, tiny double-lines present recording its production through an impressed or 'printed' method (see Brekle), with letters to one side more marked than other from being impressed when the original blank foil was on a slightly uneven surface, apparently never rolled up or folded (but probably affixed to a wooden staff, which then decomposed), some cracks and splits to edges, one large crack from top and bottom (but not meeting in middle and in stable condition), overall fine condition, 28 by 90 by 1mm. Provenance: 1. Most probably produced for the Agestratos addressed by the inscription, for attachment to his own traveller's staff. He may have been a wandering poet himself, and the use of gold for its production suggests his grand status. The name is commonly attested throughout the Greek speaking region.2. Miss Edith Horsley of London, amateur Cuneiform specialist and sometime volunteer member of the British Museum's department of the Middle East who sensationally discovered a missing piece of the earliest Babylonian World Map among the museum's fragment collection in 1995. The present item acquired by her in 1965 alongside other antiquities, presumably by descent (many of these sold at several stages by Pars Antiques). This item almost certainly studied while in her collection by the late Dominic Montserrat.3. Thence to Pars Antiques, London, in 2000, and one year later to the present owner.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 5236. Text:Some examples of script are so astonishingly rare that they appear to be unique and without comparable items for context, and these wait the recognition of some crucial piece of evidence by a scholar before we can securely place and date them. This gold foil is just such an item. Immediately before 2000, Dominic Montserrat identified it as a sixth-century BC. ephesia grammata (a mass produced form of popular magic amulet) invoking the god Phoebus Apollo. However, only in the last year or so has its inscription been recognised by G. Rocca and D.G. Muscianisi as a dedication of a traveller's staff to Apollo by one Agestratos, in a form closely paralleled by another inscription by one Leontianos in a rock-cut sanctuary to Apollo in Pisidia (modern Karabavli). The other inscription was thankfully recorded in 1888 by Sitlington Sterret (1851-1914), as it was damaged at some later point and its entire first half is now unreadable. Other than textual, there is no direct relationship between the two inscriptions, and graphical variations in the present example indicate that it had a lost record on papyrus as its exemplar. The inscription reads in translation: "To you, O Phoebus Apollo, who are the master of this road, who always delight your heart with wayfarers' libations, I, Agestratos, a musical ship [= soul], dedicate my staff. So you, O blessed one, receive joyfully the prop of my hand and the support of my knees, my traveller's staff. This offering, which supports (my) hand through the paths, now free, will take a breath from its previous labours beside you, O Phoebus" (following Rocca and Muscianisi). One aspect that the most recent study does not discuss is the fact that this is not an inscription in the purest sense, but was impressed or 'printed' from a reverse-mould into the soft surface of the gold lamella (see Brekle, 2010). This production process is known elsewhere in early Greek and Byzantine material from protective amulets, such as that with a third-century inscription in Greek to ward off leprosy now in the Getty Museum (their 80.AM.53), and earlier examples with generic Orphic or Bacchic inscriptions have been found in Greek tombs (the so-called Totenpässe). However, the method of production with the present artefact would appear to be at odds with the quality of the material here and the specific nature of its inscription. Moulds of any type are usually made to mass-produce goods, and comparison with inscriptions on contemporary Greek coins might suggest that the craftsmen who produced this went as far as producing a bronze die as if they were minting coins. However, the fact that the dedicatee is named here would render the resulting stamped lamella useless to anyone other than Agestratos himself (or a namesake). Much remains to be understood here, but perhaps the quality of the script produced by this method or a tradition of producing amuletic lamella in this format fixed the method of production here. Published: H.E. Brekle, Analyse der Herstellungstechnik der Inschrift auf einem Goldamulett in der Schoyen Collection (London/Oslo), Technischer Bericht, 2010 (online e-publication), there reproducing D. Monserrat's earlier report.G. Rocca, 'Una lamina aurea dalla collezione Schøyen (MS 5236), Alessandria 8 (2015), pp. 125-136.G. Rocca and D.G. Muscianisi, 'La lamina aurea Schøyen MS 5236', Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 217 (2021), pp. 1-16.
Ɵ Leaf from a very large Romanesque English Bible, with parts of 1 Maccabees 1:1-39, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[England, mid-twelfth century] Single large leaf, with double columns of 36 lines of an angular and compact Anglo-Caroline Romanesque bookhand, which slants to the left, without significant use of biting curves despite some lateral compression, and with noted fishtailing to ascenders, few abbreviations, explicit in red, one-line initials opening each line of capitula offset in margin and in alternate red and green, versal number in red in margin, one very large initial 'E' (opening "Et factum est postquam percussit alexander...", 1 Maccabees 1) in red enclosing blank parchment foliage tendrils, recovered from a binding and hence with some discolouration, small holes and spots, folds and cockling at edges, tears to edges (including tear through edge of large initial) section missing from lower outer blank margin, upper blank margin trimmed, overall fair and presentable condition, 372 by 276mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. The parent volume most probably written and decorated for use in an English Cisterican monastery, and with characteristic punctus flexus punctuation.2. Solomon Pottesman (1904-1978) of London, incunabulist, self-taught bibliographer and obsessive book collector, whose obituary by his close friend Alan Thomas in the Book Collector, 1979, pp. 545-553, should be in the arsenal of any serious collector seeking to justify his or her mania to a disapproving family member or friend as an example of a collector much further in the grip of bibliophilia. His sale, Sotheby's 11 December 1979, lot 10(part, main item).3. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his 'I/265', and with his notes and cataloguing. 4. Quaritch of London, their cat. 1088, Bookhands of the Middle Ages, III (1988), no. 61.5. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 106, acquired June 1988. Script:From a large and stately English Biblical manuscript, produced as a contemporary of the grand Bury Bible and Winchester Bible. Unlike those manuscripts, the ornament here is simple, perhaps reflecting Cistercian influence, while the hand is a magnificent example of the twelfth-century English scribal arts. Published: H.R. Woudhuysen, 'Manuscripts at Auction: January 1988 to December 1988', in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, II, 1990, pp. 311 and 315-17.J. Griffiths, 'Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection Copied or Owned in the British Isles before 1700', in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, V, 1995, pp. 36-42.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto XXV, in Italian, the underlayer of a manuscript palimpsest on parchment, the leaves later reused to produce a manuscript breviary[Italy, mid fourteenth century (perhaps 1330s or 1340s), and fifteenth century]To view a video of this lot, click here. Two leaves, the first leaf a palimpsest with remains of the foot of a single column in upper part of leaf, with 7 lines of fine Italian vernacular hand (a vernacular rotunda) on recto and 11 lines in same on verso (these easily readable with UV light, and visible in margins in ambient light), with initials offset in margins as common for medieval verse, the later breviary text added over that in the fifteenth century and in a single column of 23 lines of a squat late gothic bookhand (textualis formata) with much lateral compression, rubrics in red, initials in red or dark blue; the second leaf as before but without palimpsest underlayer, some areas of discolouration through use, scuffing to ink on recto of second leaf, else in good condition, 135 by 97mm.; both in separate fascicule-like paper bindings (these added for Salt, see below) Almost certainly one of the very earliest witnesses to Dante's Divine Comedy, written within a decade or so of the composition of this grand and important work; here offered on the 700th anniversary of the poet's death Provenance:1. The Dante manuscript here was copied in Italy, probably soon after after the author composed the work. The text was completed in 1321, and the professional scribal hand with its broad nib and simple angular initials ornamented with hairline strokes, most closely resemble those of Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ashburnham 828, dating to 1335 and the earliest extant manuscript of the text, as well as Piacenza, Biblioteca Comunale, MS. 190, which was copied in Genova in 1336. Moreover, one variant reading on a leaf from the same parent manuscript now in King's College (see below) suggests the inclusion of the parent manuscript in Petrocchi's group 'c' of the antica vulgata manuscripts, almost all of which trace their origin to a lost early version of the text (Salt, p. 473). Then in the fifteenth century these leaves were partly scrubbed clean and bisected laterally and reused as bifolia in the production of a Breviary, with saints such as Abundius (fifth-century bishop of Como) in its Litany, suggesting use in the northern Italian border region.2. Frank R. Brown, of Histon, bookseller based in Cambridge, in business in the 1930s and 1940s.3. Dr. George Salt (1903-2003) of Cambridge, entomologist, calligrapher and collector, these leaves his MSS. 14 and 15: his calligraphic notes on the paper bindings of these fragments, including the information that he bought the entire Breviary in a dilapidated state from Brown in Cambridge on 18 April 1936. Salt published a short report in 1985 on the underlying palimpsest text visible on approximately 56 leaves of that codex, after gifting the bulk of the volume to King's College, Cambridge (their Salt collection, codex 3, given on 21 January 1983). However, he retained the present two leaves, noting the palimpsest leaf here as "A single leaf of the breviary ... remains in my own collection, its conjoint missing". These two leaves in Sotheby's, 17 December 1991, lots 6 and 7 (the latter part of item k there).4. The Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 1543. Text:Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321), the foremost poet of the Italian language, stands at the head of a small and select gathering of medieval literary authors of sublime importance and impact. He is the most important medieval Italian author and his works all but founded the modern Italian language. This cutting here is from the grand and exquisitely beautiful Divine Comedy, probably the most important literary work of the entire Middle Ages. It was completed by 1321 in the last months of the author's life and found immediate fame. Literary echoes of it are legion and found throughout European literature from the fourteenth century to today, from Boccaccio's evident devotion in his Trattatello in laude di Dante, to T.S. Eliot's statement "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third". Jorge Luis Borges declared it "the best book literature has achieved". That preserved here is Canto XXV:118-126 and 145-151, describing the eighth circle of hell, and thus the sins and punishment of thieves.Over 800 medieval manuscripts and fragments have now been recorded by the 'Dante online' project, but they are of extreme rarity in private hands, and no codex has appeared on the open market now in nearly forty years. Fragments and cuttings are still far from common, with Sotheby's selling a damaged leaf with a miniature that was recovered from a binding, on 1 December 1998, lot 16. Another text leaf recovered from a binding was sold in our rooms, 4 December 2018, lot 29, and most recently yet another text leaf recovered from a binding emerged in 2017 in the London trade and then sold by Christie's, 14 July this year, lot 8, for £87,500. Published:G. Salt, 'An Unrecorded Palimpsest of Dante's Inferno', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 8:4 (1985), pp. 471-476.
Forged charter concerning the transfer of land at Framsden, Suffolk, by Roger de Mohaut and his wife Isolde, to their heirs, in Latin, manuscript document on parchment[England (probably East Anglia), dated 7 William I (1073) but more probably thirteenth or early fourteenth century] Single-sheet document, on 16 long lines in a shaky, angular and occasionally clumsy imitation of English Romanesque secretarial hand, stains and cockling, some small splits, these causing losses to text in left-hand corner of last three lines, overall fair and presentable, 115 by 240mm.; stitched to a card with nineteenth-century notes on contents, a transcript and translation of the document and a note that "The Latin version [the transcription on the tipped on leaf] was elaborated [in archaic sense of 'to execute with great care and minuteness of detail'] before the original was placed in this book" (the card has been foliated '1' and would have appear to once have been bound in a volume) Provenance: 1. Most probably forged at the end of the thirteenth century or the opening of the fourteenth century, in order to support the claims of the de Mohaut family to the estate of Framsden (see below).2. In English antiquarian ownership in the nineteenth-century, and then stitched to the card it is presently mounted on, with inscriptions as listed above, and most probably in a large album of charters.3. Bruce Ferrini (1950-2010), of Akron, Ohio.4. Sam Fogg of London.5. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 605/1, acquired from Fogg in December 1989. Text:Although this item is a charter rather than text, it is included here among the bookhands emulating earlier script as it is a good example of the most notorious form of such emulation - medieval forgery. This charter purports to date to the seventh year of the reign of William the Conqueror, but is in a peculiarly shaky and hesitant hand that appears to be trying to copy one of the late eleventh century, but fails in that attempt. In addition, it falls down on much factual detail. This land transfer is said to have taken place at the 'abbey' of Shouldham (here "Scoudham") to the immediate south of Marham, yet the community at Shouldham was a Gilbertine priory, and not an abbey, and was not founded until the 1190s. Moreover, beyond the mention of William the Conqueror, it is hard to identify anyone mentioned here with someone who lived in the eleventh century, and the family names given seem to cluster instead in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The sole episcopal witness is that of 'Thomas, bishop of Norwich', yet the bishop of Norwich from 1070 to 1084 was Herfast, and no Thomas held the see until Thomas Blunville (reigned as bishop 1226-1236). A Roger de Mohaut did indeed hold the estate of Framsden, but he did not have a wife named Isolde, and in fact lived in the late thirteenth century (d. 1275), where he was a hereditary knight of Hawarden Castle, Flintshire in Wales, who also held estates in Middlesex, Sussex and Warwickshire. A handful of men with this name from the same family can be traced in the thirteenth century, but not before, and it is doubtful if the castle on which their name is based (Latin: Mons Altus, corrupt form: Montalt, and Norman-French: Mohaut) was even constructed by 1073. The creator of this charter did have intimate local knowledge, but it seems that again this knowledge was of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, not the eleventh. Some of the names here, such as Henricus Helmeth and Adam Wylot, are recorded as local to Framsden from the thirteenth century onwards (with an Emma Wylot even recorded as owning a seventh part of Framsden in an inquest in 1378). The final piece of the puzzle emerges in the record of a charter of 4 June 1335 (now Essex archives, D/DRg 1/36), in which Robert de Morlee, 2nd Baron Morley notes that the claims of the de Mohaut family to Framsden had been disputed by none other than Queen Isabel, the mother of King Edward III. It seems most likely that the present document was created in the fourteenth century to further the claims of the de Mohaut family to the estate, in a hand imitative of the eleventh century and with fictitious family members of the de Mohaut family and their local followers backdated some two centuries to give their claim added legitimacy. What is perhaps most fascinating here is that the de Mohaut family must have employed a professional to help them create this document, but they clearly had only scant knowledge of local details. Records exist of professional forgers in the Middle Ages, such as the twelfth-century French monk Guerno, who tearfully confessed on his deathbed to an impressive career as a monastic forger in France and England, but it is rarer to find them for the late Middle Ages, and of extreme rarity to find one produced to support secular claims, rather than those of an ecclesiastical institution.
Royal charter of King John, for Philip, son of Wastellion, and confirming the gift of an estate named "Dunwallesland" in Wales to him in exchange for feudal service to William de Braose and a knight's fee to the tenure of Abergavenny Castle, with all its woods, fields, paths, waters, mills, fishponds and so on, in Latin, manuscript document on parchment[Welsh Marches (St. Briavels Castle in Forest of Dean), dated 5 December 1209] Single-sheet document, on 15 long lines in a fine and professional English Romanesque secretarial hand, with long and tall ascenders that lean to the left, one penwork decorated capital 'Q', seventeenth-century endorsement on reverse: "A tenure to the Castell of Abergavenny xi Joh.", with a nineteenth-century addition below that: "Dec. 5th 1210 -11a Johis", remnants of seal-tag (but seal wanting), folds and small stains, two small natural flaws in parchment, else in excellent condition, 210+41 by 230mm. Provenance: 1. Richard Henry Wood (1820-1908), FSA, of Penrhos House, Rugby, iron merchant, antiquarian and collector of charters and rare books: this item doubtless the "Charter of King John to Philip Fitz-Wastell., of the land called Dunwallesland" loaned to the museum of the British Archaeological Association in 1876 (reported in the journal of the society, vol. 32, for that year, p. 306). In fact, the descriptions of what was lent to the museum by Wood appear to have been muddled in their order in the journal, as the final item in the list lent by Wood is described as "The tenure and knight's service for the custody of his castle at Abergavenny, dated at St. Briavels, Dec. 5, 1210", which, with a very slight miscalculation of the eleventh year of John's reign (note the nineteenth-century inscription on the back of this document with the same misdating), must also be the present document.2. Sotheby's, 21 June 1994, lot 80, at which time a photograph of this charter was deposited in the National Library of Wales (Facs. 743).3. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 1857. Text:A visually attractive and remarkably early English royal charter in excellent condition. Documents with any connection to Wales survive in far fewer numbers than those for England, and rarely ever emerge on the market. Here the site of the lands named "Dunwallesland" are yet to be precisely identified, but as the Norman overlord, William de Braose, had ambushed and murdered Seisyll ap Dyfnwal, one of the lords of Gwent, on Christmas Day 1175 in Abergavenny Castle alongside other Welsh princes, they are likely to have been the ancestral lands of Dyfnwal ("Dunwall") ap Caradog ap Ynyr Fychan, the father of Seisyll. The lordship of Seisyll ap Dyfnwal and his father centred on Monmouthshire, with their main stronghold at Castell Arnalt, a motte and bailey near the River Usk to the south of Abergavenny. These same estates, then named "Donewaldeslond" were disputed in 1290, with John de Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, then claiming their ownership and challenging the heirs of Philip, son of Wastellion. As befits a grant for military reasons to bolster the Welsh Marches, most of the witnesses here were crusaders, with William, Earl of Arundel (later justiciar of England, then crusader, d. 1221), Robert de Turnham (crusader, justiciar of Cyprus in 1191, d. 1211), Hugh de Neville (crusader, royal counsellor, d. 1222), Peter de Mauley (later traitor, who died in the Holy Land in 1241), as well as the royal agent who made this grant on behalf of the king, Robert de Vieuxpont (crusader and a nephew of Hugh de Morville who was one of the assassins of Thomas Becket, d. 1228). However, the presence of Cadwallan, son of Ivor ("Cadewallanus filio Ivor"), the son of the lord of Senghenydd, at the end of the witnesses, attests to the presence of Welsh nobles in this crucial grant and the new power structure it helped to create in early thirteenth-century Wales.
Ɵ Leaf with extracts from the Testa de Nevill, a collection of original surveys of feudal landholdings, here with entries for Hereford and Gloucestershire in 1226-1228, 1235-1256 and 1250, with crossed out entries for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire from 1244, in Latin, manuscript on parchment[England (probably London), second half of thirteenth century (after 1256)] Single large leaf, with single column of 33/31 lines in a professional English secretarial hand, with counties and estate names set off in margin, with some entries lined through and crossed out (mostly those for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, perhaps copied here in error by the original scribe and then cancelled) on apparent caprine parchment with heavy grain pattern and yellowing on verso (in keeping with working documents from medieval England), a few early twentieth-century pencil notes in margins (apparently linking readings here with those of one of the editions of the Liber Feodorum, small spots and stains, trimmed at edges in places without losses to text, else good and presentable condition, 235 by 210mm.; in cloth covered card binding An important historical witness to the collection of records of feudal landholdings in the English royal exchequer in the second half of the thirteenth century Provenance:1. Most probably written in London, by an exchequer scribe extracting information from the surveys in the Testa de Nevill (see below).2. E.H. Dring (1863-1928), the first managing director of Quaritch, passing in turn to his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), himself manager of Quaritch from 1960. 3. D.C. Wilson of Cheltenham; the bulk of the Dring leaves and fragments were sold in 1983 to Quaritch, but this leaf passed instead to Wilson in 1983: with a report produced for this owner dated 20 January 1987, and a translation of the leaf, here enclosed.4. Quaritch of London, acquired by them in 1993.5. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 1696. Text:The title at the head of the recto here ("De Testa de Neuill") records that this leaf is an extract of the Testa de Nevill or Liber Feodorum, a listing of feudal landholdings compiled c. 1302 from earlier records in the English exchequer, most probably under the orders of Edward I (on this see Henry Maxwell-Lyte, Liber Feodorum: The Book of Fees commonly known called Testa de Nevill, 1920-1931). Little is known with certainty about these early records, but it has been suggested that the name Testa de Nevill refers to a large receptacle (testa = 'burnt clay' or 'earthen container', but also in medieval Latin, 'skull' or 'head', and hence modern French tête) for administrative documents, with the mark of a man named Nevill (perhaps his portrait/head), doubtless one of many members of that family who held authority over the early exchequer. An exchequer roll of 1298 seems to bear witness to this collection of documents as it mentions a "rotulus Teste de Nevill" ('small roll from the Testa de Nevill'). Some of these records survive as 500 brief written notes on estates, organised into the two vast Domesday-Book-like codices of the Liber Feodorum (Kew, National Archives, E164/5-6), with a few earlier inquiries used in the compilation of these codices now National Archives, E198. The original records appear to have been lent out to local administrative officers once these codices of the Liber Feodorum were produced, and used until they were discarded.Close comparison of the entries here with what survives in the National Archives reveals this leaf to be of some importance for the early history of this record. This leaf is written on the recto and verso and thus was once part of a codex, as opposed to a roll. Occasional deviations in the text and ordering of its components show that it is not a simple copy of the Liber Feodorum, and as it includes entries for both Gloucestershire and Herefordshire it is unlikely be a faithful witness of one of the rolls in the Testa de Nevill. The leaf here includes entries from three surveys: those of 1226-1228, 1235-1256 and 1244, and two of those entries are unique to this leaf, not being found in either the Liber Feodorum or the preparatory materials now in National Archives, E198 (the entries for Hereford in which the abbot of Wygemore is recorded as holding 3 marks, and the prior of Akleye is recorded as holding 5 marks). Thus, it is most probably a fair copy of several rolls once in the Testa de Nevill, extracted by the scribe here. It may be the last witness to an otherwise unrecorded inquiry into those counties, produced in London for the investigating government parties to take with them into the West Country. Please note that this item is subject to the Manorial Documents Rules, and as such it cannot be taken out of England and Wales without the consent of the Master of the Rolls, and future owners must inform the secretary of the Historical Manuscripts Commission of their acquisition.
Four charters of London interest, in Latin, manuscript documents on parchment [England, first half of thirteenth to sixteenth century] Four documents: (i) indenture between Margaret FitzRobert of London and William Matthew, barber of London, for the lease of a shop in Thames Street, on 22 long lines, one calligraphic initial, indentured at head, seal and seal tag wanting, 170+25 by 270mm., dated 3 February 1461; (ii) agreement concerning a house in Southwark between Adam Duke, John Swofeham and Henry Bylney, and William Causton and Alinore, his wife, on 10 long lines, apparently without ever having seals, seal tags or turn-up, endorsed "Ingr" at foot, 90+ by 270mm., dated 'XV Henry VII' so 1499 or 1500; (iii) quitclaim of John Clune, citizen and seed farmer of London, to his mother, Frideswide Clune, for land in Warwick Lane, on 28 long lines, important words in larger script, ascenders in uppermost line with ornamental cadels and opening with calligraphic initial, signed by issuer on turn up through stem of seal tag, seal tag present (but no seal), 240+30 by 370mm., dated 20 November 1582; (iv) royal grant of Henry VIII to John Lambard, clothier of London, of the manor of Heddington in Wiltshire, formerly the property of the Augustinian Abbey of St. Mary, Lacock (founded 1232, and surrendered to the crown in 1538), together with the advowson of the rectory of Heddington, on 54 long lines, opening words and crucial phrases in enlarged script, seal and seal tag wanting, 480 by 640mm., dated "Terlynge" (Terling Hall, Essex, an occasional residence of Henry VIII) 28 October 1543; all with small spots, stains and folds, else good condition, and all laid down on large cards Item (v) here was once in the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps, and came to the Schøyen Collection from the London book-dealer Alan G. Thomas. The first three documents here were owned by E.H. Dring (1863-1928), and his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), and passed from them to the Schøyen Collection via the London book-dealership Quaritch.
Collection of nine English medieval charters from the Phillipps collection, in Latin, manuscript documents on parchment[England, thirteenth and fourteenth century] Nine documents: (i) charter of William de Moreville, Elena his wife and Eudes his heir, conveying to Alured Finke land at Bridport on the manor of Bradpole, Dorset, and for a further mark of pasture rights for two cows and a horse, 12 long lines by Robert the chaplain, 110 by 180mm., Dorset, early thirteenth century; (ii) conveyance by Hugh of Porton, Wiltshire, to Walkelin de Rosche, of land beside that formerly of John of Burcombe, 12 long lines, 90 by 150mm., Wiltshire, c. 1250; (iii) conveyance by John the son of Ralph of Sneinton, Nottinghamshire, to John the son of Roger de Croperhull of Nottingham, of land in "le Kyrke Meduwe", 16 long lines, 120 by 210mm., Nottinghamshire, 14 July 1284; (iv) legal judgement on the urgently needed repairs to the Cattawade Bridge, 'which horses and carts used to be able to cross', and for the upkeep of which Hugh, late rector of East Bergholt, Suffolk, had left land which had subsequently been sold, with lists of the landholders in Bergholt, all of whom were to contribute to the repairs, 16 long lines, 110 by 240mm., Suffolk, c. 1300; (v) lease by Sir Robert de Tuddenham (who owned Tuddenham Hall, Wisbech St. Mary, and was executed on the accession of Edward IV) to William le Bustlere of Hildersham, Cambridgeshire, and Margaret his wife, of the manor of Little Abington, 19 long lines, 160 by 220mm., Eriswell, Suffolk, 29 September 1307; (vi) conveyance by Lucy, daughter of John of Otley, to John de Atleburg and Mary his wife, of land in Seething, which she and her sister inherited from their father, 13 long lines, armorial seal with inscription "S. LVCIE:FIL:IOHANIS:D", 120 by 200mm., Suffolk, early fourteenth century; (vii) conveyance by John, son of John of Beckenham, to John of Beckenham and Alice his wife, of lands inherited from his father in Cranbrook and Biddenden, both in Kent, 13 long lines, with seal tag cut from an older document (but no seal), 110 by 240mm., Beckenham, Kent, 1324-1325; (viii) conveyance by Edward Robelard of Lacock to Edward Dodyng, of land in Lacock and elsewere, 19 long lines, with a pencil note by Phillipps: "Copied in Libro Cartarum", 160 by 220mm., Lacock, Wiltshire, 28 October 1334; (ix) conveyance by Sir William de Rellyston to John Woderove, John Amyas junior, Master Robert Woderove, and John Snytall the chaplain, of his share in the manor and lands of Meltham, Yorkshire, 10 long lines, seal tag cut from an older document and with red wax armorial seal, inscribed "SIGILLVM. WILE[...]", 110 by 260mm., Yorkshire, 1388-1389; all with folds, small spots and discoloured areas, else good condition This clutch of English documents was built up over a long period of time by Alan G. Thomas (1911-1992) from the sales of the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps' charters. Only item (iii) ever had a Phillipps acquisition number ("29216", and that indicating an origin in the collection of the nineteenth-century Bradfield antiquary John Wilson [1719-1783] of Broomhead Hall), and was acquired by Thomas in Sotheby's, 27 June 1977, lot 4927. The rest were acquired through the same Sotheby's sale (lots 4860, 4974a, 4957, 4843, 4913b, 4889b and 4974d), apart from item (ix) which was acquired by Thomas directly from the Robinsons of Pall Mall. This group of charters then acquired by the Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, from Thomas' estate in 1994.
Small collection of documents concerning the Dukes of Burgundy, in French and Dutch, manuscript documents on paper and parchment[England and The Netherlands, dated 13 July 1411, 1470, and 3 April and 28 May 1471] Five documents (those in Dutch forming two sets of attached double documents, joined at their lefthand edges): (i) letter of 'Sauf Conduit', that is a passport giving safe passage, granted by Thomas Pickworth, lieutenant of Calais for the Prince of Wales (Henry of Monmouth, 1386-1422, later King Henry IV) to visit Thierry Gherbode, counsellor and archivist to the Duke of Burgundy, to discuss differences between the duke and the English, in French on paper, in 26 long lines of an Continental secretarial hand, elongated calligraphic cadels to ascenders of opening words, endorsed with scribal mark like an angular petalled version of the so-called 'clover' symbol at foot, embossed with red wax seal in blank margin at foot of document (30mm. diameter; with Pickworth arms with three pickaxes), endorsed on reverse in French by seventeenth- or eighteenth-century hand as well as Phillipp's number (see below), 270 by 300mm., dated Calais 13 July 1411; (ii) four letters of Charles 'the bold',duke of Burgundy, to Caius, his lord "van den Raide", on 24, 30, 13 and 21 long lines, respectively, in Dutch secretarial script, scribal mark of "Lodovicus" at foot of two of them (and all four in a single scribal hand), with red wax seals on face of documents in margin and on seal tags cut horizontally from feet, 210 by 350mm. and 240 by 360mm., both dated 1470, and 160 by 330mm. and 260 by 360mm., "Hollant" and dated 3 April and 28 May 1471; all with folds and small stains, else good condition, all laid down on three cards Item (i) here first emerged in the Southwell papers (the archive of Sir Robert Southwell [1635-1702] and his son Edward Southwell [1671-1730], both serving as secretaries of State for Ireland), these disbursed by the London bookseller, Thomas Thorpe, in catalogues issued from 1834 to 1836, with many acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps (and thence sold by Sotheby's, 4 April 1977, lot 140, and now University of Pennsylvania). Phillipps also owned this document, and it is endorsed by him with his acquisition number: "10165", on its reverse. All three documents passed through the hands of E.H. Dring (1863-1928), and his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), to the Schøyen Collection via the London book-dealership Quaritch.
'Monasteriarum totius Anglie', a list of English monasteries and their annual incomes, arranged by counties, in Latin, manuscript on paper[England (probably London or Westminster), c. 1535]To view a video of this lot, click here. 6 leaves (plus a blank leaf left at front, and 3 blank leaves at back, the outermost acting as covers), complete, entries in approximately 28 lines of a fine and professional English secretarial hand, diocesian titles offset in left-hand margin, incomes offset in right-hand margin, title and added word "Copia" in contemporary hands at head of verso of last sheet, small amount of corrections from contemporary use, some small spots, stains and folds, discoloured at outer edges, overall good and legible condition, 310 by 210mm.; stitched, but not bound, and probably not so until the eighteenth or nineteenth century (see below), remnants of that later binding at spine of booklet, in fitted burgundy cloth-covered case Provenance: 1. Almost certainly produced for an official active in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Following Henry VIII's seizure of control of the Church, one of his first acts was to tax the clergy, and to that end commissions were appointed throughout the country in 1535 to visit each institution and make a full assessment of their income from their archives. The work was performed under substantial royal pressure and at breakneck speed, with the results handed in and collated together in the royal exchequer in the summer of the same year. This produced the Valor Ecclesiasticus (now Kew, National Archives, E344, formed of 30 files and volumes). The present booklet identifies itself as a "Copia" of a document that must have been produced during this hurried exercise in data collection. We can be confidant that it was produced around 1535: the watermark of an elaborate pot topped with decorative crenulations and a cross formed of four loops is a common one (agreeing in general with Briquet 12,510-12,512, 12,517 and 12,520-12,526, ranging from 1504-1596), but is closest to Briquet 12,519 (recorded for Brussels, 1536). However, the addition of letters to the body of the pot is found in Briquet 12,819-12,840 (ranging from the 1520s-1580s), and one example of those, Briquet 12,841, is recorded in the Netherlands in 1542, 1543 and 1547, with a garbled inscription "DEL" that might just explain the presence of the letters '[L?]ED' here. That the paper here should be from the Low Countries is unsurprising, as for most of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were almost no English paper mills engaged in the manufacture of 'white paper' for writing and printing.2. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1972), doubtless abstracted from a larger manuscript by him, with traces of binding structures and brown leather from inside of spine adhering to the spine of booklet. The discolouration to the first and last leaves indicating that this booklet was separate for some centuries before being bound up (probably in eighteenth or nineteenth century), and before that was probably just tacketed together and folded lengthways. Passing to Phillips' heirs after his death, and thence to the Robinson brothers, of 16-17 Pall Mall; this item sold by them in Sotheby's, 26 June 1974, lot 2914: with a sheet of paper enclosed with this item with the lot number and the brief description "English monasteries 16th cent.", followed by sale date and Alan Thomas' price code.3. Alan G. Thomas (1911-1992), London bookdealer; and his sale at Sotheby's, 21 June 1993, lot 50, realising £1100.4. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 1678; acquired via Quaritch from the Sotheby's sale. Text:The approximately 160 entries in this booklet contain considerably less information than in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, with the records here pared down to a list of monasteries arranged by their region and followed by their income, and this instrument was evidently used in the calculation of grand totals for each region or indeed the whole nation. The survey is also at odds with the geographical peregrinations of the Valor Ecclesiasticus, which unlike that document begins here in the far north with the diocese of York (fol. 1r), before moving on to Lincoln (fol. 1v), Cumbria ("Karlioh"), Huntingdon, Chester (fol. 2r), Lancashire, Sussex, Dorset, Cornwall, London and Middlesex (fol. 2v), Norfolk, Northampton (fol. 3r), Bedford, Bristol (fol. 3v), Nottingham, Canterbury, Worcester, Canterbury (fol. 4r), Oxford, Essex, Leicester (fol. 4v), Suffolk, Buckingham, Hertford (fol. 5r), Gloucester, Wilton, Winchester, Durham (fol. 5v), Berkshire, Warwick, Devon (fol. 6r), and Somerset. It has a small number of contemporary corrections and was evidently in use during the Reformation.Records such as this, which played an active role in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, have been few and far between on the market since the final dispersal of the Phillipps collection, and to the best of our knowledge the only other comparable in recent years is that of a copy of the Letters Patent of the Dissolution of Ely, with other associated texts, made for the last prior of the community, sold in our last Schøyen sale, 8 July 2020, lot 74.
"A terreal of all suche landes as Thom[a]s Yardley hathe in Beoley", a land terrier in Middle English, manuscript on a roll of parchment within its original fabric cover[England (Worcestershire), dated 1506]To view a video of this lot, click here. Roll of parchment, formed from two membranes with added headpiece, complete, including a single column of approximately 120 lines in a vernacular English hand, text opening with large calligraphic initial encased within penwork acanthus leaves and supporting a large bird on its penwork cadels, a penwork banderole emerging from side of initial with "Ao 1506", this followed by the title and another date-clause: "Ao Regis Henrici VII.22 - Ao domini : 1506", one large penwork initial 'F' formed from woody stems, reverse blank, the first membrane stitched to a rough fabric wrapper with two blue plaited cords ending in a single brown cord to wrap around the roll as a tie, some later overwriting throughout, small spots and stains, else in excellent condition, 950 by 120mm. Provenance: 1. Thomas Yardley (fl. 1506) of Worcestershire, and almost certainly from the estate of Yardley, neighbouring Bewdley and now in the south east outskirts of Birmingham, to the immediate south west of Kidderminster. This roll was probably one of several such records compiled by him for use in his estate management: with the title "Beoley" on the outer side of the fabric wrapper in same hand as main document. 2. Eighteenth- or nineteenth-century circular blue paper label with collection label with "912" in pen.3. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), his MS. 26,566: his manuscript number added in pen to outer side of cloth wrapping; and passing to his heirs and thence to the Robinson brothers of 16-17 Pall Mall, London.4. Alan G. Thomas (1911-1992), London bookdealer.5. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 1872/12, acquired in June 1994. Text:This charming practical estate record contains a detailed description of twenty-four estates in Bewdley. It, and its fabric wrapper, are in an excellent state of preservation. This record dates to a period of the history of Bewdley for which almost no other information survives. Please note that this item is subject to the Manorial Documents Rules, and as such it cannot be taken out of England and Wales without the consent of the Master of the Rolls, and future owners must inform the secretary of the Historical Manuscripts Commission of their acquisition.
Four charters of Welsh interest, in Latin or Tudor English, manuscript documents on parchment[Wales and adjacent border regions of England, thirteenth and sixteenth century] Four documents: (i) charter of "Iewan ap Lewelin" (Ieuan ap Llywelyn) to Walter, son of John Self, for sale of an acre of arable farmland (unnamed here, and reverse without endorsement, but most probably in a Welsh border region), on 15 long lines, seal tag (but no seal), 110 by 220mm., third quarter of thirteenth century; (ii) indenture recording the sale of the manor of "Longrove" in Penarth, Glamorgan, from Erasmus Saunders of Tenby (c. 1534-c. 1597, a recusant English Catholic, who through his marriage in 1570 became one of the wealthiest men in Pembrokeshire: see F. Green, 'Saunders of Pentre, Tymawr, and Galnrhyd', Historical Society of West Wales, Transactions, II, 1913, pp. 161-188) and Jenett, his wife, to Henry Thomas ap Owen of Ilston, Glamorgan, and Rowland Dawkyn of Penarth and John Danyell of Penarth, for £200 in "good and lawfull money of England", in Tudor English, on 40 long lines, opening two words and important words in enlarged version of same, witnesses added on reverse (Philip Williams, Henry Manfield [added in his own hand], John Lawrens, John Thome John, George Franklin, "Morgan af ap Jeremie Morgan", Hopkin William ap Rees, and William ap Richard Meline), the signature of Erasmus Saunders and his wife's shaky initials added by them to the turn-up on the dorse, indentured at head, tag for a seal present (but only half of red wax seal remaining), another seal tag torn away from foot of document, seventeenth-century inscription on reverse: "Old papers belonging to R[ichard]i Coraugh", 290+22 by 48mm., dated Penarth, Glamorgan 15 July 1573; (iii) enfeoffment by David ap David Jankyn of "Berthloid" (Berthlloyd), Montgomeryshire, of David ap Rees ap John ap David, for property in "Dorowen" (Darowen), Montgomeryshire, in Tudor English (with endorsement in Latin), in 28 long lines, 150 by 500mm., dated 26 August 1577; (iv) charter of Thomas Wyne of Garth, Montgomeryshire, "Jesper ap Hugh" of "Rydeskine", Montgomeryshire, and Gylbert Homfrey of "Cletterward", Montgomeryshire, acknowledging a £600 debt to Edward Horbert, on 11 long lines, remains of four red wax seals on seal tags cut horizontally across the bottom of the document (surviving seals with letters 'W' and 'O', and a herd of cattle between two castles), 160 by 320mm., dated Acton Burrell, Shropshire, 8 January 1578; all with spots, stains and folds, but overall in good condition, all apart from (ii) laid down on cards Items (i) and (iii)-(iv) were once in the collection of E.H. Dring (1863-1928), and his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), and passed from them to the Schøyen Collection via the London book-dealership Quaritch. Item (ii) was acquired by the Schøyen Collection in July 1994 from Jeff Towns of Dylan's Book Store, Swansea, Glamorgan. All manuscripts from Wales, or of Welsh interest, are of significant rarity, and those of the thirteenth century greatly so.
Ɵ Cutting from a leaf of Pseudo-Hegesippus, De Bello Judaico et excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae, a Latin adaptation of Josephus Flavius, The Jewish War, in early Beneventan script, manuscript on parchment[central Italy (Montecassino), early eleventh century (before 1030)] Cutting fashioned to use as the board-support of a later bookbinding (rectangular, with two channels cut into section to be pasted around spine of later book to allow for sewing stations), remains of double column of 13 lines in a fine and accomplished transitional Beneventan minuscule (with I.2.10, I.3.5, and I.1.7, 9 of the text), remains of blank margin on one vertical side, the other trimmed with loss of a few characters from the column-edge there, stains to the sections once around spine of later binding, a few wormholes, scuffed in places to reverse (but mostly legible), 128 by 285mm.; in cloth-covered card binding This fragment is an early and important witness to this strange text, a late fourth-century Latin adaptation of Josephus, The Jewish War; here in Beneventan script and securely from the medieval library of the grand Benedictine foundation abbey of Montecassino Provenance: 1. From a parent codex produced in the celebrated abbey of Montecassino in the first few decades of the eleventh century, and used there in their medieval library. At the close of the Middle Ages it was cut up and reused as binding material, and another 71 leaves and fragments remain in Montecassino, Compactio III and VIII, with this cutting fitting together with one in Compactio VIII (on the cuttings in Montecassino, see V. Ussani, 'Un ignoto codice cassinese del cosi detto Egesippo e i suoi affini', in Casinensia. Miscellanea di studi cassinesi, 1929, pp. 601-614; and V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (I)', Mediaeval Studies, 40, 1978, p. 262).2. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California.3. Quaritch of London, their cat. 1128, Bookhands of the Middle Ages IV: Beneventan Script (1990), no. 1 (the earliest item in that catalogue, and singled out by Brown in her introduction alongside the Vergil, later sold in Sotheby's, 10 July 2012, lot 18, as "particularly important").4. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 183. Text:Pseudo-Hegesippus lived in the fourth century, but beyond this we know almost nothing of him. His name may be a misunderstanding of 'Iosippus' (for Josephus) whose work he drew on, or a false attribution to Hegesippus the Nazarene (d. 180 AD.) to give the work authority. Alternatively, some manuscripts attribute it to Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397) and some commentators to a converted Jew named Isaac, producing it for European Jewish populations who could no longer read Greek. The author is often thought of a simple Latin translator of Josephus' The Jewish War, but his work is more of a history of the period, drawing its material mainly from Josephus' works, as well as from Virgil, Sallust, Tacitus, Ammianus, Suetonius, Quintilian and Cicero, and deserves to be seen as a work in its own right. Surprisingly, it almost never draws on the Bible for its material, and this is all the more startling for the fact it adopts an overt Christian tone and the statement of the author that it was to be used for the peaceful convertion of medieval Jews. An apparent allusion to the recent reconquest of Britain by Theodosius c. 370, but the author's lack of knowledge of the defeats of the Roman Empire in 378 and 410, has been used to date its composition to between those years. The text was wildly popular, and for much of the Middle Ages was the version of Josephus' work most well known in Europe, producing nearly forty recorded medieval manuscripts, a large number of citations and rhymed and metrical versions in manuscripts from Tegernsee (E. Dümmler, 'Gedichte aus Münchener Handschriften', Neues Archiv, VII, 1881, pp. 608-613) and England (see Dom G. Morin, 'Hégésippe en rimes latine', Revue Bénédictine, 31, 1914-1919, pp. 174-178). The present manuscript and its sister leaves stand among the early and important witnesses to the text. The earliest is a series of palimpsest fragments of the text of the sixth century originally from Bobbio, now held in the Biblioteca Ambroisiana in Milan (C. 105 inf: CLA III, no. 323a). Copies of the seventh century (Paris, BnF., lat. 13,367), and ninth century (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 170; Bern, Burgerbibliothek, 180; Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, Aug. Perg. LXXXII; Innsbruck, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol, frag. 72; and Kassel, Landesbibiothek, theol. 65) follow. Three tenth-century copies are recorded (Leiden, Voss. Lat. F 17; Turin, Bibl. Univ., D IV 7; and Paris, BnF. lat. 12513), as well as three of c. 1000 (Besancon, Bibl. mun., 833; Cambrai, Médiathèque municipale 678; and Chartres, Médiathèque, 117). Only seven other eleventh-century manuscripts are recorded (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS. 149; Cherbourg, Médiathèque, 51; Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, Aug. Perg. CI; Koblenz, Landeshauptarchiv, Best. 701, Nr. 759, 22; Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, 403 bis; Leiden, Bibliotheek der Universiteit, B.P.L. 21; and Paris, BnF, lat. 12512). Loew notes that another copy of the text, also of the early eleventh century, was at Montecassino, and was once used by Boccaccio and is now Florence, Laurenziana, MS. 66.1 (Beneventan Script, 1914, p. 71).Script:Beneventan script, the most well known of the local hands of the Early Middle Ages, refused to be swept away by the Carolingian script reforms of the late eighth and ninth centuries, and stalwartly continued like a paleographical 'living fossil' in Montecassino and its dependant houses in southern and central Italy and coastal Dalmatia through to the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, with a final appearances in the sixteenth century. On first glance, it appears illegible, a mass of swirling letterforms, broken penstrokes and archaic letters inherited from Roman cursive hands. However, it also delights and fascinates the eye, and has remained close to Martin Schøyen's bibliophilic heart since he acquired the entire stock en bloc of Quaritch's 'Beneventan Hands' catalogue in 1990. In order to reflect the range of Beneventan holdings in his library we offer five examples here.It is quite remarkable that this text here is copied here in Beneventan script. Even a brief glance at Lowe's and Brown's lists of Beneventan manuscripts shows that overwhelmingly this script was used for Biblical, liturgical and patristic books (of the 600 manuscripts listed by Lowe, over 90% fit into these categories), but Montecassino played an important role in the preservation of several important historical and Classical texts. They rarely come to the market, with noteworthy examples the Orosius fragments now in Yale, MS. 1023 and the Virgil, Georgics, once Schøyen Collection MS. 61, and sold in their first sale at Sotheby's, 10 July 2012, lot 18, for £32,000 hammer. Published: V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (III)', Mediaeval Studies, 56 (1994), p. 316.BMB. Bibliografia dei manuscritti in scrittura beneventana, 1993-1995, 2000-2001, no. SPS 183 (but reported in error there as in Norway).And noted online in the Mirabile website's listing manuscripts of the text, augmenting the list of manuscripts in V. Ussani, Hegesippi qui dicitur historiae libri V (1932 and 1960).
An Egyptian white faience ear plug New Kingdom, 18th-19th Dynasties, circa 1550-1185 B.C.Of typical mushroom form, the discus terminal decorated with a marguerite white and blue flower with separately applied red boss in the centre, 2.5cm highFootnotes:Provenance:Dr John Winnie collection, St Mary's, GA, ca. 1970s. with Noele and Ronald Mele, Westport. Private collection, Europe, acquired from the above February 2008.Cf. Egypt's Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom 1558-1085 B.C., Boston, 1982, p. 231, item 299.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Atlas: Folio Society: Pordes (L.)photography The Facsimile Edition of the Queen Mary Atlas, folio, L. (Folio Society)2005, Limited Edition No, 545 (1000), cold. double page maps, printed on Furioso paper, in fine binding by Smith Settle of Otley in full grain finish calf with design by David Eccles in matching maroon cloth clam box. Nice Presentation item. (1)
Rare Hunting Manuscript The Genesis of The Galway Blazers Co. Galway: Rules to be observed by the Birmingham Hunt, A large manuscript poster type document, outlining the rules, cost of membership & listing approx. 42 gentlemen including Wm. & John Birmingham, Denis and Dominic Daly, five members of the Kirwin family, five Blakes, The Earl of Louth, Lord St. Lawrence, others include various members of the French's, the Burke's, the Bodkins, Lynch's & Mahon's and others. A single sheet, approx. 18" x 12" (46cms x 30cms), no date (c. 1800), paper watermarked 'R. Nun'. Unique item. V. Rare. (1)
Early Athletic Programme Co. Dublin - Sporting: Dublin Exhibition 1873, Grand National Athletic Contest, North V. South of Ireland [and] England V. Ireland, single printed sheet on pink paper folded. As ephemera, w.a.f. Good & V. Rare. (1) * Interesting item, listing committee members, different events & dress code etc.
Secret Orders Issued To Military Officers - known as ''The Castle Document'', leaflet 7 1/2" x 5", one side only, April 1916 ''The following precautionary measures have been sanctioned by the Irish Office on the recommendation of the General Officer Commanding the Forces in Ireland ... .'' - As circulated by P.J. Little, ed. New Ireland office 13 Fleet Street, Dublin, 15 April, 1916. An article published in An t-?glac -The Irish Volunteer) on 8 April 1916 called for Volunteer manoeuvres on Easter Sunday 23 April 1916. On Wednesday,15 April 1916, the IRB forged a notice supposedly decoded from a communication emanating from Dublin Castle. It was printed on a hand press by Joseph Plunkett and Rory O'Connor at Larkfield House, Plunkett's home off the Lower Kimmage Road. It excluded punctuation marks and capitalisation due to the poor supply of printing font available to them. Known as the 'Castle Document', apparently ordering the execution of Eoin Mac Neil, arrest of Volunteer leaders and occupation of Dublin by the British Army, it was shown to MacNeill. He was then easily persuaded to give an order to the Irish Volunteers 'to resist any British action.' This was the order that the IRB needed to go ahead with the Rising. On 19 April 1916 Alderman Tom Kelly read the ''Castle Order'' to a meeting of Dublin Corporation. The Nationalist weekly paper, New Ireland, edited by Patrick J. Little (1884-1963), published the text of the document, a single sheet handbill entitled ''Secret Orders issued to Military Officers'' in its issue for Saturday 22 April 1916 (vol. II no. 49), just two days before the Easter Rising began. However MacNeill discovered, sometime around 20 April that the 'Castle Document' was a fake. He put an advertisement in the Irish Independent newspaper which told all volunteers that 'No parades, marches or other movements of the Volunteers will take place.' This cancellation caused the IRB to move back the rebellion one day to Easter Monday - 24 April, 1916. Many rural Volunteers, who had come to town on Sunday only to hear the rebellion was cancelled, returned home. Although all the Rising's leaders now realised that they were doomed, they still went ahead with the plans for rebellion. There are only one or two recorded copies of this important document in public records. Very few can have survived as the printing would appear to have been small and the method of distribution via newspapers aborted. None of the textbook histories actually quote from it but rather paraphrase its content.. In terms of this identification, the only full printing of this was in the last issue of New Ireland before its suppression just prior to the Rising. The only reproduction of the handbill accompanied the Irish Press article of January 4 1937 by Hanna Sheehy Skeffington. Colm ? Lochlainn gave it an incorrect caption title in his short piece on Joseph Mary Plunkett as a printer, published in The Irish Book Lover for March 1954. Charles Townshend wrote in Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion: ''There had been a scare from a leaked Dublin Castle document apparently planning for repressive measures to be taken in the event of introducing conscription. This led to the ramping up of tension and expectation, and seemed to offer an excuse to start the rebellion on Easter Sunday. Eoin MacNeill, of course, countermanded the orders; but as things turned out, he was not fully in control, and the rebellion went ahead, though on a smaller scale, on Easter Monday instead.'' A little browned, but a good copy of a Scarce and Vulnerable Item. (1)
Extremely Rare Item [O'Casey (Sean)] Lament for Thomas Ashe, by Sean O'Cathasaigh [Dublin, F. O'Connor 1917] Broadside, [Poem], 4 stanzas of eight lines, commencing 'The Breasts of the mountains with anger are heaving...' approx. 7 1/2" x 5 1/4". One small straight tear, otherwise a very fine copy. Ayling & Durkan A2. (1) * Another very rare O'Casey item, his second publication. It was printed very hurriedly, probably for distribution outside the gaol gates, while Ashe's friends were waiting for news as to when his body would be allowed out for burial. Ex. Scarce.
Proceedings of The First Dail Dail Eireann: Dail Eireann. Tuairisc Infhedidh meach ar Sheiseon an Mheithimh, 17adh - 19adh (Session June 17 - 19, 1919). Printed text in Irish followed by English version, reporting the Dail business and debates in detail, including appointment of Arthur Griffith as Acting President in the Absence of the President, Eamon de Valera. Business included a resolution of thanks to American Congress, Acting -Presidents' Address, Departmental Reports, Ministerial proposals etc. 8vo 16pp, orig. ptd. wrappers, somewhat browned. An exceptionally rare item. (1)
AA WORLD-CHANGING DOCUMENTUnited States Declaration of Independence. An original engraved facsimile copy of the Declaration of Independence of 4 July 1776, N.B. On careful examination The Auctioneers believe that this item is a copy of the Peter Force Edition of 1833, not 1823 as stated in printed catalogue.This copy with direct provenance to Charles O’Conor, the distinguished Irish-American attorney and politician. Measurement: 30.5 in (77cm) x 25.5 in (65cm) "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled .. do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States .. and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”The Declaration followed a period of stressed relations with Great Britain over trade and other matters. It was drafted mainly by Thomas Jefferson, with amendments by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and others, and was adopted on 4 July 1776 by delegates from 13 States assembled in the Second Continental Conference. It provided the essential basis for the Treaty with revolutionary France agreed in 1778. It is no exaggeration to say that this document changed the world, marking a decisive turn away from the era of unchallenged imperial expansion and the subjection of colonial peoples, and was thereafter a shining beacon to subject peoples everywhere, most notably the Irish. Three of the 56 signatories were born in Ireland, with a further 8 of Irish descent.The Declaration of Independence was initially published as a broadside, printed by Robert Dunlap, in which form it was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost. The best-known version is a signed copy that is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and which is popularly regarded as the official document. In 1820, when the ink on the Archives copy was seen to be fading, Congress commissioned the engraver William J. Stone to execute a full-scale facsimile, printed in 1823 in 200 copies on parchment, and issued to surviving signatories (including Jefferson and Adams) and other distinguished personalities. It was issued to Charles O’Conor of New York, a son of Thomas O’Conor of the O’Conor Don family of Roscommon. Charles' father, Thomas was sworn into the United Irishmen by Wolfe Tone personally, and went to America after the failure of the 1798 Rebellion.Charles O’Conor (1804-1884) was born in New York, and was called to the Bar in 1824. He quickly made his name as a trial lawyer; after his success in a major divorce and alimony case, he was presented with two silver vases - one by a group of 30 leading New York ladies, the other by sixty members of the Bar. Both vases are now in the New York Law Institute Library.He was active in Irish support groups, including one intended to support a Fenian rising in Ireland, and for many years he was a major figure in Democratic politics. He was U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York 1853-54. After the Civil War he was senior counsel for the Southern leader Jefferson Davis in his trial for treason. In the 1870s he was prominent in the successful campaign against William (Boss) Tweed of Tammany Hall. In 1872 he was nominated for the Presidency of America by a southern Democratic group. He declined the nomination, but his name still appeared on the ballot paper – the first Catholic to receive such a nomination. After the 1876 election, he was advocate for his friend Samuel Tilden in his unsuccessful attempt to claim the Presidency, having won a plurality of the popular vote.The present engraving came to light recently in a country house in the West of Ireland, where presumably it was brought by Charles O’Conor on a visit to his ancestral homeland. Of the 200 original copies issued, a recent census (Coleman 1991*) could find only 31 surviving, of which institutions held 19 and only 12 (to which the present copy can be added) were in private hands.An exceptionally rare and important document, truly one that has changed the world.A superb memorial to a very distinguished Irish-American, and a confirmation and celebration of the Irish contribution to the constitutional development of the United States. In excellent condition.Provenance: Charles O’Conor of New York [1804-1884]; by unbroken family descent.*W.R. Coleman, ‘Counting the Stones – a Census of the Stone Facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence’. Manuscripts vol. 43 no. 2 pp 97-105.With acknowledgements to Wikipedia.N.B. On careful examination The Auctioneers believe that this item is a copy of the Peter Force Edition of 1833, not 1823 as stated in printed catalogue.
Illustrations by Jack B. Yeats Reynolds (J. Hamilton) The Fancy, notes by John Masefield, 12mo L. (Elkin Mathews) n.d. First Edn., 13 Illus. by Jack B. Yeats, orig. wrappers; A Catalogue of Pictures Presented to the City of Dublin to form the Nucleus of a Gallery of Modern Art, Sm. 8vo D. 1904. Signed by Lily Yeats, ptd. wrappers; Gregory (Lady) Case for the Return of Sir Hugh Lane's Pictures of Dublin, 8vo D. 1926, Port. frontis & illus.; Sir Hugh Lane's French Pictures, Report of a Public Meeting held in the Mansion House, Dublin 29th Jan. 1918, 8vo D. (Talbot Press) 1918. Lim. to 500 Copies Only; & 1 other item, on Jack B. Yeats. A lot. (5)
V. Rare Hugh Lane Association Item Abbey Theatre: A printed Linen Handkerchief, Sold by the Irish Players at $1.00 towards a building to save Sir Hugh Lane's Great Gift of Pictures for Ireland, April 1913. approx. 47cms square, with 8 single portraits, and large group study of The Abbey Players, signed by W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory. Folded and in original envelope. In fine condition. (1) Provenance: From the Collections of the late Mrs. Catherine Kennedy, grand daughter of Lady Gregory.
Mac Piarais (Padraic) [P.H. Pearse] Bodach an Chóta Lachtna, 12mo D. (Chomradh na Gaedhilge) 1906. First Edn., frontis & orig. décor. cold. wrappers, after Joseph Campbell; Bruidhean Chaorthainn, 12mo D. 1908, First Edn., wrappers; Ghosts, No. 10 Tracts for the Times, 8vo D. 1916, wrappers; Ryan (Des.) The Man Called Pearse, D. 1919. First Edn., cloth backed boards, all v. good; & 1 other item sim. (5)
Poetry: MacManus (M.J.) Connacht Songs, sq. 12mo D. (Talbot Press) 1927. First Edn., orig. pictorial boards after Sean O'Sullivan; Rackrent Hall and Other Poems, D. 1941, First Edn., boards; Irish Cavalcade 1550-1850, L. & D. 1939. First Edn., Signed by Author, cloth; & 1 other item same author. (4)
A collection of Old English pattern silver cutlery by Fenton, Russell & Co Ltd, Sheffield 1925, to include twelve tablespoons, twelve table forks, ten dessert spoons, seven dessert forks, two ladles, another larger example and two serving spoons, together with a Georgian ladle, another plated example, two plated dessert spoons, five plated dessert forks, six plated teaspoons, and a collection of stainless steel and ivorine cutlery to include twelve table knives, thirteen fruit knives, and a four piece steel carving set, weighable 103.3oztCondition report: Multiple item lot, all items with surface scrtaches, marks and tarnishing.
A group of Chinese rose quartz carvings, comprising: a rabbit, 5.2cm long, wood stand, a seal, 8cm long, a dog, 5.7cm long, and another, 5.6cm long, associated wood stand (6)Condition report: Rabbit - natural crack.Seal - natural crack, chips.Dog - natural crack, minute chips to edges.The fourth item - natural cracks and minute chips to edges.
DERBY, Edward Earl of - The Iliad of Homer Rendered into English Blank Verse : 2 vols, green half morocco extra gilt spine, 8vo, John Murray, 1865. With - Bekker, Immanuel, Homeri Ilias & Odyssea, 2 vols, full crushed crimson morocco sunned on spines by Riviere, 8vo, Berolini, 1843. With - Hymni Homerici cum reliquis Carminibus Minoribus Homero Tribui Solitis et Batrachomymachia : full crimson morocco (matching previous item), 8v0, 1796. With - four volumes from the Parnassus Library of Greek and Latin Texts. With one other classic text.(9).
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!["A terreal of all suche landes as Thom[a]s Yardley hathe in Beoley", a land terrier in Middle English, manuscript on a roll o](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/b9e5fee5-a9a8-41ad-949a-adbc0150cb6b/6e8a5a4d-d7be-4fc7-802a-add300e74795/468x382.jpg)
![Extremely Rare Item [O'Casey (Sean)] Lament for Thomas Ashe, by Sean O'Cathasaigh [Dublin, F. O'Connor 1917] Broadside, [Poe](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/6e4c89b0-9e21-45b6-97ed-ade100bf2b2d/e89bb384-4817-4dcd-8277-adf00098029f/468x382.jpg)
![Mac Piarais (Padraic) [P.H. Pearse] Bodach an Chóta Lachtna, 12mo D. (Chomradh na Gaedhilge) 1906. First Edn., fron](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/6e4c89b0-9e21-45b6-97ed-ade100bf2b2d/d0091382-c6e3-48c6-8f2b-adf000993d13/468x382.jpg)
