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Lot 765
British 1821 Light Cavalry Pattern Patent Hilt Sword by Wilkinson of London Circa 1853. A good and early example of the Wilkinson Patent Hilt sword, this example has no order number to the back edge of the blade, which would indicate pre 1854 manufacture. The straight 36 inch blade, with etched decoration of a Crowned VR Cypher and the original owners initials “RB” to an etched panel. The forte with the cutler’s details of “Henry Wilkinson Pall Mall London”. The regulation hilt with three bar open guard and solid chequered grip with twist wire binding. Housed in with steel scabbard. The overall condition good etching clear.
Lot 766
1821 Light Cavalry Officer’s Piped Back, Quill Point Sword. A rare early example of the pattern, the 32 inch plain piped back blade with quill point. The hilt of the regulation pattern with three bar guard, shagreen grip with twist wire binding. Complete with original early style scabbard fitted with two loose rings. Overall age staining GC.
Lot 767
Waterloo Period Household Cavalry Pattern Troopers Sword. An extremely rare and good example of the sword believed carried by Troopers of the Household Cavalry at the time of the Peninsular War and during the charge of the “Union Brigade” at the Battle of Waterloo. Heavy single edged blade with hatchet point (length 35 inches), with a crowned $ acceptance stamp. The hilt is of polished steel, with a pierced design. The grip is of ribbed leather, the backstrap with ears. Complete with original polished steel scabbard, fitted with two loose rings. This with now faint engraved cutler’s details and number “B 43” The blade and scabbard with light pitting. Overall GC.The Household Cavalry regiments were not required to correspond to cavalry patterns authorised for other regiments and therefore this Regimental pattern was introduced to the regiment with Hatchet point circa 1796 and carried to about 1820. A similar example can be seen on the National Army Museum Online Collection.
Lot 772
Napoleonic War Period British Light Company Officer’s Shamshir style Sword by Tatham of London. A scarce and unusual example, carried by a Light Company Officer of a Prince of Wales Regiment. The 28 inch heavily curved blade by Runkel retains traces of blue & gilt decoration (10%) and is engraved with a Crowned Prince of Wales three feather crest and stand of Arms. The Shamshir style hilt with gilt cross guard mounted with a Light Company strung bugle, the two piece polished wood grip with pateri decoration. Complete with original black leather scabbard with gilt mounts, the top mount with the cutler’s details of “Tatham to His Majesty 37 Charing Cross next to the Admiralty” Overall GC, chape to scabbard appears to be a professional restored replacement.
Lot 773
Napoleonic War Battle of Waterloo Period 1796 Light Cavalry Officer’s Sword Blue & Gilt Decoration. A good example, the single edged curved blade with half length blue and gilt decoration depicting a Crowned GR cypher and a mounted cavalry Officer. The hilt with single bar guar protecting the leather covered grip with silver twist wire binding. Housed in original steel scabbard fitted with two loose rings. Overall GC dark patina, 80% blue & gilt remains.
Lot 775
Napoleonic War Period Continental Hussar Light Cavalry Sword. This example appears to be modelled on the French pattern, but bears no inspection or cutler’s stamps. The single edged curved 34 inch blade with fuller. The hilt with single brass bar guard, which encloses a leather covered ribbed wooden grip. Housed in original heavy brass and leather panel scabbard. Overall GC.
Lot 776
Early Victorian 1822 Infantry Pattern Officer’s Levee Pattern Sword. A good early example of the pattern, with 32 inch piped back blade with quill point. The blade etched with a Crowned VR cypher panel. This cypher is repeated to the gilt open guard, with encloses a shagreen grip with twist wire binding. Complete with black patent leather guard lining and original gold bullion and crimson sword not. Black leather scabbard of correct size with brass mounts, the top mount with frog button. Overall GC light pitting to the blade.
Lot 783
Victorian Volunteer Rifles Officer’s Sword. An example of the Light Infantry regulation pattern. The slightly curved single edged blade is etched with a crowned VR cypher and title “Volunteer Rifles”. To the forte, the retailer’s details of Smith of London. The hilt with shagreen grip and open guard with Light Infantry bugle. Blade remains very good, the scabbard has been cleaned.
Lot 784
Victorian Welsh 6th Denbighshire Rifle Volunteers Officer’s Sword. A good and rare example of the Light Infantry regulation pattern. The slightly curved single edged blade is etched with a crowned VR cypher and title “6th Denbigh Rifle Vols”. Also etched wit the original owners name of “ARTHUR W ADAMS” To the forte the retailer’s details of Hobson of London. The hilt with shagreen grip and open guard with Light Infantry bugle. Housed in metal scabbard fitted with two loose rings. Etching to the blade clear.
Lot 785
Napoleonic War Battle of Waterloo Period 1796 Light Cavalry Officer’s Sword. A good example, the single edged curved blade with etched decoration depicting a Crowned GR cypher and a mounted cavalry Officer. The hilt with single bar guar protecting the leather covered grip with silver twist wire binding. Scabbard absent
Lot 8
85th (King’s Light Infantry) Regiment Officer’s “Albert” shako plate circa 1844-55. An excellent rare rich fire-gilt example. Crowned star mounted spray of laurel and palm and coiled bugle; centrally the numerals “85” on a domed gilt ground. Four rays of the star bear the regiment’s honours “ FUENTES D’ONOR NIVE PENINSULA BLADENSBURG”. Two horizontal loops to reverse with two pairs of wire behind the crown. VGCThe 85th was granted the title “King’s Light Infantry” in April 1821.
Lot 230
A collection of Wedgwood jasperware and Queen's Ware 20th century, predominantly typically decorated in relief with Classical style figures comprising a dark blue jasper vase, 19.5cm high; a pedestal fruit bowl in light blue jasper, 20.5cm diameter; a light blue jardiniere, 16cm high; a small dark blue tapered jasper vase decorated with flowers and leaves, 10cm high; a large dark blue jasper jardiniere with floral swags and lionshead detail, 21cm diameter and a Queen's Ware light blue fruit bowl, 25.5cm diameter and a white Queen's Ware vase (7)
Lot 1
4th Queen’s Own Light Dragoons Victorian senior NCO’s shako plate circa 1857-61. A very fine, rare die-stamped rich fire-gilt example. Crowned hobnail Maltese cross, battle honours to the raised edges; to the finely seeded centre, within a title strap, floriated Roman numerals “IV”. Retains both original lead soldered horizontal loops to reverse. VGCConverted to hussars in 1861
Lot 112
2nd Lancashire Light Horse Volunteers 1860’s shako plate. A fine and rare die-stamped white metal example. Crowned elongated star mounted with three lions in pale. Two loops to reverse. VGCSee “Light Horse and Mounted Rifle Volunteers 1860-1901” by W.Y.Carman, page 85 for Officer’s shako bearing an example of this plate.
Lot 119
Irish. Royal Irish Fusiliers Officer’s fur cap grenade circa 1881-1914. A good die-cast example. Gilt flaming grenade, the ball mounted with silver Eagle and tablet inscribed ‘8’. Two blades and single screw post to reverse. VGCThe Eagle and tablet inscribed “8” represents the Eagle on the flagstaff of the 8th French Light Infantry captured by the old 87th Fusiliers at Barossa on 5th March 1811.
Lot 121
Royal Marine Light Infantry Victorian Officer’s shako plate circa 1866-78. A good gilt scarce example. Crowned star mounted with laurel sprays, “GIBRALTAR” scroll at the top and fouled anchor to the base. Centrally, a pierced strap “PER MARE PER TERRAM” on blue enamel ground. To the centre, a silver globe in relief. Mounted beneath the sprays, a silver strung bugle. Two loops to reverse. VGC
Lot 127
South Africa. Durban Light Infantry pouch belt plate circa 1902-13. A good die-stamped lightly silvered white metal example by Hobson & Sons, Lexington St. London W. Crowned laurel sprays resting on title scroll; centrally two Wildebeests in wreath on domed ground. Four short loops to reverse. VGC (Owen 413)
Lot 13
The Prince Albert’s (Somerset Light Infantry) Officer’s Victorian helmet plate circa 1881-1901. A fine rich gilt example. Crowned star mounted with laurel sprays and Garter, the black velvet centre mounted with silver mural crowned strung bugle, Sphinx on “EGYPT”. Mounted on the base of the laurels, a silver tri-part scroll “SOMERSETSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY”. Two of three loops to reverse. VGC
Lot 173
16th Light Dragoons (Lancers) pre 1855 Officer's waist belt plate. A very fine and rare undress example. Fire gilt rectangular plate; mounted on the plate, superimposed on crossed lances, Union sprays and crowned strap inscribed “SIXTEENTH LANCERS” with VR to centre. Applied scrolls inscribed “PENINSULA” and “WATERLOO” to the sprays and numerous ones below. Fixed belt loop present, detachable belt loop now absent. VGCThe 16th Lancers were the only regiment to crimp their lance pennons.
Lot 189
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Victorian Officer’s glengarry badge circa 1887-97. A good scarce example. Gilt crowned Garter, the slightly domed black velvet centre mounted with gilt French Horn and central silver White Rose of York with silver scroll “CEDE NULLIS’ below. Two loops to reverse. Two wires securing backplate absent. minor fracture ti neck of crown otherwise GC.Provenance. Ex Hugh King Collection,
Lot 192
Royal Jersey Light Infantry Victorian Officer’s glengarry badge circa 1885. A fine and rare gilt example. Crowned gilt strap inscribed “PRO REGE ET PATRIA”. Within the strap, a silvered shield bearing the three gold lions from the Channel Islands Arms, mounted on a gilt saltire all on a rich blue enamel ground. Crimson velvet cap to the crown. Two loops to reverse. VGCEx Hugh King Collection
Lot 243
Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers) Victorian OR’s glengarry grenade circa 1881-90. A good scarce pattern, Die-stamped brass flaming grenade, the ball bearing eagle within circlet inscribed “ROYAL IRISH FUSILIERS 8”. Two loops to reverse. Slight polishing to eagle’s breast. Spot of verdigris on flames. VGC (KK 969).The Eagle and tablet inscribed “8” represents the Eagle on the flagstaff of the 8th French Light Infantry captured by Sergeant Patrick Masterson of the 87th Fusiliers at Barossa on 5th March 1811.
Lot 25
Royal Marine Light Infantry Victorian OR’s helmet plate circa 1878-1901. A good die-stamped brass example. Crowned star bearing laurel sprays joined at the top by “GIBRALTAR”; fouled anchor and strung bugle below. Within the sprays, a circlet inscribed “PER MARE PER TERRAM”; to the centre, the globe in relief. Two loops to reverse. Service wear to globe and slight verdigris to reverse. GC
Lot 26
Royal Marine Light Infantry Edwardian OR’s helmet plate circa 1901-05. A good die-stamped brass example. Crowned star bearing laurel sprays joined at the top by “GIBRALTAR”; fouled anchor and strung bugle below. Within the sprays, a circlet inscribed “PER MARE PER TERRAM”; to the centre, the globe in relief. Two loops to reverse. VGC
Lot 291
South Africa. Neylan’s Imperial Horse Boer War slouch hat badge A rare sheet brass example. “N-I-H” initials. Two brass wire loops to reverse. VGCOfficial name Orange River Scouts also known as Nolans Intelligence Scouts. An intelligence unit under Major John Nolan-Neylan DSO (nephew of Nolan of the Light Brigade fame) formerly Second in Command Gorringes Flying Column.
Lot 12
Carrie Reichardt & Bob Osbourne & Kelly-Anne Davitt (Collaboration), 'Peep Show Illumination (All I Want)', 2019, unique, light box, LEDs, wood, paint, perspex, varnish and enamel on Minuet Cotton Rag Paper, signed by Reichardt and Osbourne and numbered from an edition of 20 in black pen; 66 x 49 x 11.50cm inc frame ARR
![Small cutting of French verse, reused as a frisket in sixteenth century, manuscript on parchment [France, thirteenth century]](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/7390c663-f856-486e-8645-aa5c00b4e6bb/8a600836-5721-4b3c-ac08-aa5c00f2eaa9/468x382.jpg)
Lot 37
Small cutting of French verse, reused as a frisket in sixteenth century, manuscript on parchment [France, thirteenth century] Rectangular cutting, with remnants of 7 lines from a single column (suggesting this was once a double column manuscript, that here too slight to allow easy identification, but including the phrases “la place de la cite” and “je veul dist il q[ue] [com]mander”), the script on the front just visible in normal light, that on reverse visible only in UV light, that overlaid with red ink on front marking out shapes of imprinted letters in reverse, small strip cut from upper part (for red script to be printed through during secondary use as frisket), scuffs, cuts, overall fair condition, 35 by 95mm. Friskets - sections of medieval manuscript leaves reused in early printing to mask off the print face from all but the rubrics to be printed in red - were until quite recently thought to be rare. Following the research of Elizabeth Upper ('Red Frisket Sheets, c.1490 - 1630', Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 108:4 (2014) , who lists 21 in total; see also her online extension of this which extends this total to 59) and our sale of one, 8 July 2015, lot 27, private collectors recognised them in their own collections and a handful more have been brought to light (see our catalogue, 6 July 2016, lot 42, for further references, as well as a large example now in the University of South Carolina and another offered in Bassenge, 16 April 2019, lot 807).
Lot 47
Emperor Justinianus as an enthroned king handing his lawcodes (here as a single-sheet document) to two young men, on a large initial on a leaf from the Corpus Juris Civilis, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (probably Paris), thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with an initial ‘U’ (opening “Ulpianus libro …” the opening of the second book), in pale brown wash heightened with white hairline penwork, enclosing a seated monarch with a golden crown, as he receives a single-sheet document from 2 young men, all on blue grounds within thin gold frame, the remaining parts of this and the next word in elongated red and blue capitals, 4 other small initials in pink or blue on coloured grounds with gold bezants, 2 enclosing foliage, the others with a crowned king’s face and a cat-like animal who bites at a bezant, another long eared drollery creature curled around the lower inner corner of the text on verso, simple red and blue elongated initials, red rubrics, elaborate red or blue paragraph marks, double column of 52 lines in a good early gothic bookhand, the margins filled with gloss, and in fact this leaf skilfully remarginated very soon after being produced with its original margins (perhaps with outdated gloss) stripped away and replaced by new, other glosses set interlineally as well as a series of references symbols added by a medieval hand in black ink over some words, split to upper margin, thinness of parchment causing some splits along ruled lines of text (but not affecting initial and visible easily only when leaf is held up to light), rubbed in places with slight losses to gloss in margin, overall good condition, 433 by 250mm. The initial here opens the text on the jurisdiction over the Jews. The artist of this charming and well accomplished example of French thirteenth-century painting may well have been familiar with the workshops of Paris more regularly involved in the production of illuminated Bibles. The models for the seated king here and the two men standing before him are most probably those found elsewhere in the productions of the Johannes Grusch and ‘Vie de Saint Denis’ ateliers (cf. R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles, 1977, figs. 228 & 250, where interestingly the latter illustrates two Jewish men in tall pointed hats).
Lot 52
Job in bed displaying his skin afflictions, in a large historiated initial, with a border with a human drummer and a naked bearded drollery with human heads for hands, all by the Secondo Maestro del Breviario Strozzi 11, on a leaf from a manuscript Antiphoner on parchment [Tuscany (probably Florence), mid-fourteenth century (probably c. 1340)] Single vast leaf, with a large initial ‘S’ (opening “Si bona suscepimus …”, a responsory for the funeral service), in dark blue acanthus leaves shaded with white brushstrokes, other coloured acanthus leaves making up the remaining parts of the letter, and with coloured knots and gold fruit at junctions, all on a blue ground with teal green and red frame, the upper compartment enclosing Job as a bearded man in a red skullcap, reclining half-naked on a bed exposing his boils and blemishes while a female attendant inclines towards him, all before a burnished gold background, the lower compartment with an angular boss-like four petalled flower on burnished gold ground, simple coloured foliage around a coloured bar with curls of leaves enclosing gold or coloured grounds and a bezant filling most of inner border and all of lower border, with a naked bearded human drollery with 2 human heads for arms, a drummer wearing a coif and a bearded human face set within the foliage, large red initials set within ornate blue penwork, red rubrics, 5 lines of text (written space 445 by 300mm.) with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 48mm.), original number ‘I’ in margin, as well as later pen pagination set in outer margin adjacent to second stave (perhaps eighteenth century, here ‘25’ and ‘26’; other known leaves with same hand in same place: Sotheby’s: ‘6’ and presumably ‘5’, Amedeo: ‘111’ and presumably ‘112’), remains of old and perhaps Italian paper label at foot (much missing, but “44[3]” visible), folds at head and foot of blank margins, some darkening in places and cockling, with small losses to paintwork in lower margin (this common to other leaves from this codex), 622 by 450mm. A hitherto unrecorded leaf from this fascinating dispersed antiphoner, with a rare composition of Job as bed-ridden patient afflicted by skin diseases. The first leaf to come to light did so in Sotheby’s, 19 June 1990, lot 34 (with full page illustration), but the artist was not identified and named, and the remaining examples of his work not drawn together for study, until the publication of F. Todini, La Spezia. Museo Civico Amedeo Lia Miniature, in 1996 (pp. 232-38, which focussed on another leaf almost certainly from the same codex). Todini identified the original parent manuscript as one once in the church of San Francesco di Pisa, which had left that community and seems to have been dispersed in the eighteenth century, partly in England. The Secondo Maestro del Breviario Strozzi 11 follows the finest conventions of Florentine work of the mid-fourteenth century, and shares his detailed facial expressions and sparsely populated borders inhabited by tall and thin human figures with other contemporary Florentine masters such as Pacino di Bonaguida, the Master of the Dominican Effigies and the Master of the Montepulciano Gradual (formerly Master of Antiphonary of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas; see Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300-1350, 2012, pp. 252-81 & 310-11, 316-19 & 322-5, as well as our sale 6 July 2017, lot 62, and references there). However, what sets him apart from these other artists are his pinched and pensive human faces, as well as his riotously inventive border decorations with long-muzzled dragons and strange even alarming human drolleries such as here.
Lot 74
ƟGoffredus de Trano, Summa super rubricis decretalium and Iohannes de Deo, Liber seu summa dispensationum, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [northern Germany (perhaps Rhineland), fourteenth century (most probably first half of that century), with an additional final quire of c. 1400]241 leaves (plus an endleaf at front), the last leaf pasted to backboard, complete, collation: i-iii8, iv6, v10, vi-xix8, xx6 (once 8, last 2 leaves cancelled blanks removed after Early Modern foliation), xxi-xxix8, xxx11 (first original leaf a blank cancel, removed before Early Modern foliation added), occasional catchwords and original quire signatures, seventeenth- or eighteenth-century foliation in upper right hand corner of rectos (slightly imperfect, but followed here), double column of 38 lines, in a small number of skilled gothic bookhands (see below), capitals touched alternately in red and blue, rubrics in red, running titles in red or blue capitals, initials alternately in red and blue with contrasting penwork, space left blank for Tables of Affinity and Consanguinity on fols. 169r and 171r, prick marks for lines remaining in outer margins, a few leaves with extremities of edges slightly turned over, 2 further leaves with small sections of blank edges torn away, and small cuts to gutters of adjacent leaves from removal of 2 cancelled blanks, some slight areas of discoloration, small spots and scuffs and occasional natural flaw in parchment, a few leaves showing the volume very slightly trimmed (removing mostly edges of lines of marginalia), overwhelmingly in excellent condition on cream-coloured heavy parchment with wide and clean margins, 305 by 220mm.; fifteenth-century German binding of blind-stamped pigskin (tooled with frames formed of simple fillet and geometric panels around a central floral boss within a rhombus) over massive wooden boards, the spine tooled in same and sewn on 5 double thongs, leather added over binding structures in German style with spine covered first and leather panels for boards then laid over (inner vertical edge of board cover now slightly lifted), title in ink on fore-edge, clasps wanting and holes in leather where these clasps once protruded from edges of boards stitched shut, some green stains in same place from missing copper-based clasps, light scuffing and a few scratches, small hole in leather of spine, front board very slightly coming away from some thongs, but solid in bindingAn imposing and elegant German monastic codex, in its late medieval binding, and from the collections of Leander van Ess and Sir Thomas PhillippsProvenance:1. Most probably written and decorated in the first half of the fourteenth century for use in a German monastic community, perhaps in the Rhineland. The subsequent owner (Leander van Ess) obtained many books from monasteries in this region: he had served as a monk at Marienmünster in North-Rhine Westphalia and took books with him when it was dissolved in 1803. Perhaps significantly, a large group of his manuscripts came from the Carthusian monastery of St. Barbara in Cologne, which was founded in 1334. If future research upholds a connection to this last house, then it may have been among the founding books of their medieval library.2. Leander van Ess (in fact Johann Heinrich van Ess, 1772-1847), important early bibliophile and manuscript collector at time of the suppression of the German monasteries and the spilling of their libraries onto the open market, pastor of Swalenberg, theologian at Marburg University, German translator of the New Testament, passionate proponent of lay Bible reading and founder of the Christliche Bruderbund zur Verbreitung der heiligen Schriften), with his printed collection number ‘95’ on spine, this corresponding to the published catalogue of his collection: Sammlung und Verzeichniss Handscriftlicher [sic] Bücher aus dem VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV, etc. Jahrhundert …, Darmstadt, 1823, no. 95. On his library see: M. Mc. Gatch in 'So precious a foundation', the Library of Leander Van Ess at the Burke Library of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, 1996, pp. 47-84.3. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), the single greatest manuscript collector to have ever lived who assembled a collection of 60,000 manuscripts. This his MS. 480 and thus among his very first purchases, made in 1824 when he was only 33 years old, and as part of the entire manuscript collection of van Ess (some 372 volumes for £320). This was the famous acquisition for which van Ess naively sent the books to Phillipps before payment had been made, resulting in five years arguments and wrangling over Sir Thomas’ outrageous refusal to pay the entire bill (all described in van Ess’ angry letter of 1826, printed in A.N.L. Munby, The Formation of the Phillipps Library Up to the Year 1840, 1954, pp. 29-32). Phillipps’ paper label pasted to base of spine, and hand written numbers inside frontboard and at foot of fol. 1r. Sold in Phillipps’ sale, Sotheby’s, 24 April 1911, lot 274.4. Walther Dolch (1883-1914) for the Eduard Langer Library. Langer (1852-1914) was an industrialist and politician based in Branau/Broumov (Bohemia/Upper Austria, now Czech Republic), who built the largest library of its kind in Austria-Hungary.5. Fürst Alexander Olivier Anton von Dietrichstein zu Schloss Nikolsburg (1899-1964); his second sale with Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 25 June 1934, lot 286: lot number in pencil and sale catalogue clipping pasted inside front board.6. Christie’s, 21 November 2012, lot 24, to Les Enlumineres, their TM. 676, sold in 2014.Text: This weighty monastic tome contains two important texts that were indispensable legal reference works for any ecclesiastical institution in the Middle Ages. The first is that of the Summa super rubricis decretalium by Goffredus of Trano (1200-1245) an Italian canon lawyer. He studied under the celebrated legal specialist Azo, and subsequently took up a professorship of Roman Law at Naples. In 1244, he was appointed cardinal by Innocent IV, his former fellow-student at Bologna. This text is the product of a comprehensive rewrite and improvement of his glosses on the Decretals, made in the years just before the author’s death. It became the seminal work in its field and survives in 280 medieval codices.To this has been appended the Liber seu summa dispensationum of Johannes de Deo (born 1189-91, d. 1267), a native of the Algarve, who studied canon law and perhaps also civil law at Bologna in the years before 1229. In due course, he taught in the university there for at least two decades, producing a number of summaries and digests of canon law. Around 1260 he took up office as archdeacon in Lisbon, and he died there some seven years later. The present text survives in two recensions composed before and after 1243, and that here is the second, shorter version (see J.P. von Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts, II, 1877, p. 96, n. 10, and A. de Sousa Costa, Doutrina penitencial do canonista Joâo de Deus, 1956, pp. 103-105, pp. 196-197, for a list of other manuscripts). It addresses the thorny legal issue of ‘dispensation’, the act by which an ecclesiastical superior could grant exemption from a particular law, most famously in the granting of the right to marry when kinship laws forbade this, or the right to dissolve a marriage. In this text Johannes de Deo examines all forms and types of dispensatio, granted by various members within the hierarchy of the Church, but also among the normal social bonds of lay society.For additional cataloguing information, please visit https://www.dreweatts.com/auctions/lot-details/?saleId=14207&lotId=74
Lot 75
ƟThe Myrowr of Recluses, a Middle English translation of the Speculum Inclusorum, a guide to the life of an English anchorite, decorated manuscript on paper [England (probably London region, perhaps Barking Abbey), first half of fifteenth century (probably soon after 1414)] 66 leaves (plus 3 modern paper endleaves at front and back), catchwords and leaf signatures throughout, complete, collation: i-viii8, ix2, single column of 21 lines of a professional English vernacular hand, paragraph marks in alternate red and blue, small initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, three large variegated initials in red and blue with scrolling penwork extending height of upright margin, some notes for rubricator left in margins, paper heavy and with no apparent watermark, small spots and stains, many leaves with slight discolouration at corners from old water damage (a few leaves with parts of margin notes for rubricator washed out by this), else excellent condition, 200 by 140 mm.; English nineteenth-century blind-tooled brown leather, spine gilt with: “MYSTERYE OF RECLUSES / M.S. / 1414”, leaves with red edges The only complete manuscript of this Middle English text on the life of a religious recluse, perhaps produced in Barking Abbey as part of the female education campaign of Abbess Sybil de Felton Provenance:1. The prologue to the text, unique to only this manuscript, dates the beginning of its composition to the “this Wednysday bi the morrow, the even of the blissed virgyne seynt Alburgh, the secunde yeere of the worthy christen prince oure souerayn liege lord þe kyng Henry the Fiftis”, that is 10 October 1414, with the next day the Feast of St. Ethelberga, sister of St. Erkenwald the patron saint of London. In 1414, 10 October was indeed a Wednesday. This copy is of the first half of the fifteenth century, and most probably was copied soon after the translation of the text into Middle English. The first few leaves here have apparent authorial corrections, but it must be noted that E.A. Jones has suggested instead that these are the work of a contemporary corrector trying to improve on the syntax. More importantly, Jones tentatively locates this translation of the text, and thus perhaps also the site of copying of this witness, on the basis of the dedication to “lady Seynt Marie and of my … lady Seynt Alburgh”, to the abbey of Barking, a Benedictine foundation for women a few miles to the east of London, and the education campaign there of Abbess Sybil de Felton. She owned or obtained for that house one of the earliest copies of Nicolas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, as well as William Flete’s De Remediis contra Temptationes and the Clensyng of Mannes Soule. Moreover, Barking may have been the site of the composition of, or first audience for, The Chastising of God’s Children, and as a house of educated women it was turned to by Henry V to aid in the royal foundation of the English Benedictines at Syon. Indeed, one of Sybil de Felton followers from Barking, named Matilda Newton, became the initial abbess of Syon although she never professed as a Bridgettine. She returned to Barking in 1417 to live as a recluse (this nun has also been tentatively identified as a translator of texts: see M. Cré in A Companion to Marguerite Porete and the Mirror of Simple Souls, 2017). Barking Abbey was suppressed on 14 November 1539 and its possessions scattered.2. Passing then into apparent lay hands: Roger Saddlar: his sixteenth-century inscription on fol. 10v; and Robert Leche (d. 1587) of Christ Church, Oxford, and then proctor of the university in 1560 and 1566, and chancellor of the diocese of Chester in 1562 (J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1891, p. 892): his inscription: “In dei nomine, amen. Auditis, visis, et intellectis, et plenarie discussis per nos Robertum Leche artium magistri et in LL baccallarii reverend’ in Christo patris et domini, domini Willelmus permissione dia’ […] episcopi” on fol. 66v.3. John Wylde, his seventeenth- or eighteenth-century ex libris and “no 133” at the head of fol. 1r.4. Most probably William Ford (1771-1832), Manchester bookseller: inscription in hand of Joseph Brooks Yates on first endleaf recording “2.12.6 from Mr Ford’s collection, 26 Sep. 1820”, presumably recording its price in £, shillings and pence. Ford’s initial catalogues were formed from his own vast private library, allowing the identification given here. Ford noted, perhaps prophetically, in a letter to Dibdin that “It was my love of books, not of lucre, which first induced me to become a bookseller.” He went bankrupt in 1810, but continued to operate as a bookseller and issued catalogues as late as 1832.5. Joseph Brooks Yates (1780-1855): his inscriptions on endleaf on purchase from ‘Ford’ and “exhibited at L & P Society April 1844” (ie. Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, of which he was president).6. Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), his lengthy inscription on front endleaf recording his discussions on the volume with “Mr Skeat of Cambridge” (W.W. Skeat, Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, as well as a Middle English and Gothic language scholar), Frederick J. Furnivall (who worked with Skeat on the Early English Text Society publications) and Henry Bradshaw (Librarian Camb. Univ. Library)” (liturgicist and linguist, who famously declared “Books are to me as living organisms, and I can only study them as such; so every particle of light which I can obtain as to their personal history is so much positive gain”), this dated 8 February 1880. Followed by a letter of the previous year from Skeat tipped in, declaring it “an original of the date it professes to be - 2nd year of Henry V” and suggesting the dialect is that of London. Plus a loose note, presumably from Skeat suggesting two related published works.7. Allan Heywood Bright (1862-1941), inherited from H.Y. Thompson: his bookplate, with pencil mark “I/4”. Sold in his descendants’ sale, Christies, 16 July 2014, lot 12, to the present owner. Text:This is the only complete copy of this work, known previously solely from the fragmentary witness in British Library Harley MS. 2372. The Harley manuscript is a less than perfect witness, lacking about a third of the text including the beginning, the end of part II and the end of part III. Additionally, it is clear that it was copied in the mid-fifteenth century at some remove from the original, and by the end of that century it was in Stamford, Lincs. (see A. Rogers in The Library, VII:15, 2014). The differences in the present text and that in the Harley manuscript show that neither is directly related to each other, but both were copied from a lost manuscript in Middle English, perhaps the original of the translation, with the present witness including some devotional verses on the Passion that were perhaps at some stage associated with the text. The present manuscript was not available to be consulted by Marta Powell Harley in 1995 when she edited the fragmentary text in the Harley manuscript, and likewise E.A. Jones in his parallel Latin and Middle English edition of the text published in 2013. Jones has subsequently published some brief observations on the text and the origins of the present copy, but it can scarcely be said to have been edited and much work remains to be done. For additional cataloguing information, please visit https://www.dreweatts.com/auctions/lot-details/?saleId=14207&lotId=75 Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
Lot 91
Ɵ The Prayerbook of Jørgen Quitzow, in Renaissance Danish and German, illuminated manuscript on parchment, with near-contemporary additions on paper [Denmark (perhaps the Lutheran Chapter for Noble Ladies at Maribo, Lolland, or just perhaps central Fyn), dated 1570] 80 leaves, the main section (48 leaves) on vellum, complete, collation: i-xi4, approximately 16 lines of an angular calligraphic hand with numerous pen cadels and flourishes set in a near-square single column framed at edges by double orange-red and pale green lines, rubrics in red, sections opening with larger ornate letters and ending with calligraphic interlace ‘penwork knots’, double-page opening at front with coloured and illuminated coats-of-arms (see below), 17 hand-coloured woodcuts taken from a contemporary printed text on paper (from a copy of the Danish version of Luther, Husspostille published in 1564; 2 with substantial damage, and a further 8 spaces indicating that woodcuts were once there but have been removed or fallen away), this followed by some 32 paper leaves with near-contemporary additions of devotional material probably added for (or even by) Quitzow, mostly in quires of 8 and wanting a single leaf from this section, else complete, the first 6 leaves also approximately 16 lines in near-square single column, set within single red lines, thereafter 13 leaves with further devotional additions, the last leaves blank, some small natural flaws in parchment, small spots and scuffs, but overall in good and solid condition, 100 by 95mm.; Danish binding of c. 1800, marbled paper-covered pasteboards, spine backed with light tan leather, corners quartered with same, title “Bonn/bog” in ink on spine, with Thore Virgin’s “1570” added below Provenance:1. Written and illuminated for Jørgen Quitzow (d. 1599: see E. Ladewig Pederson in Adel forpligter - studier over den danske adels gældsstiftelse, 1983, p. 190, for brief comment) of Lykkesholm, Fyn: with the arms of his father’s family (Quitzow, beneath a silver helm and within metallic foliage) facing those of his mother’s family (Rønnow of Magelund, within golden foliage and gilt and red helm) as an illuminated opening on the inside facing pages of the first two leaves, and with a scrawled contemporary signature at the foot of those leaves that is certainly his own (“Jürgenn Qvitzow / med egen hand”). He was an important Danish magnate of the last decades of the sixteenth century, presumably named after his grandfather Jørgen Henningsen Quitzow (d. 1544), who served King Christian III as royal courtier and chancellor from 1537 until his death. His grandmother was Ellen Andersdatter (d. after 1558), a member of the influential Gøye family, who in later life became the first and founding abbess of the Lutheran Chapter for Noble Ladies at Maribo, Lolland, a house which took over the buildings of the first Bridgettine abbey in Denmark (that founded directly from Vadstena in 1418, and suppressed as a Catholic house during the Reformation, but with some nuns remaining in situ throughout the refoundation). This was a community of protestant ‘nuns’ in all ways bar their titles, made up from woman dedicated to prayer and Bible study in Danish and German. Such Lutheran chapters were a common phenomenon in early Reformation Denmark, often founded to ensure the suppression of earlier powerful Catholic religious centres (in this case the founding Bridgettine house of Denmark). However, old habits seem to have died hard, and in 1563 complaints were made to the bishop of Fyn that the inmates were harbouring Catholics, had resumed prayers for the dead of their Bridgettine predecessors and had returned to wearing the Bridgettine habit in private. Accusations of drunkenness and disorder followed and the house was suppressed in 1621.Two of the around twenty surviving medieval and Renaissance prayer books made for Danish private owners are securely connected to Maribo (K.M. Nielsen, A. Otto and J. Lyster, Middelalderens danke Bønnebøger, 1945-1982; cataloguing Copenhagen, GKS 1614, 4to and Thott. Samling 553, 4to), and it is possible that the scriptorium there produced also this codex, also produced this codex, perhaps as a gift to Qvitzow from his grandmother or maternal aunt (both reportedly abbesses of the house).2. Lt. Captain Thore Virgin (1886-1957) of Qvarnfors, Skåne, Sweden: his ex libris and small printed bookplate on front pastedown, noting the acquisition of the book in Copenhagen on 28 March 1927. The remnant of the Thore Virgin library was widely dispersed in recent years, but this volume has until now not appeared on the open market, and is completely unknown and unrecorded. Text and illustrations:The text opens with the calligraphic title, “En liden trøstelig Bønebog/ aff atskillige slaugs Tydske oc danske bønebøger de trøsteligste tilsamme[n] schreffuen/ nu udi denne siste Verdens tid gantske nødsommelig at bede. 15*70”, and includes a lengthy series of prayers interspersed with readings from SS. Augustine, Basil, John Chrysostom, Hilarion, Origen and others, and quotations from the works of Luther (including prayers), Ludwig Rabus (whose prayerbook was published in 1567), and Andreas Musculus (who published a devotional work in 1559). The last six leaves of the parchment section contain devotional Biblical readings.Books of Hours and prayer books translated into vernacular languages are of exceptional rarity, outside of the Dutch tradition (which had a strong vernacular tradition following the devotio moderna movement and the translation of Gerhard Groote). While a few hundred thousand such manuscripts exist in Latin, only a handful survive in a small number of other vernacular languages. Only about twenty-five such manuscripts substantially in German are currently known to exist (R. Cermann, ‘Über den Export deutschsprachiger Stundenbücher von Paris nach Nürnberg’, Codices Manuscripti, 75, 2010, pp. 9-24, and Sotheby’s, 2 December 2014, lot 49). Seventeen survive in Middle English, none earlier than the end of the fourteenth century (A. Sutherland, English Psalms in the Middle Ages. 1300-1450, Oxford, 2015, p. 27). The total number of Old French vernacular prayer books is unknown but probably no more than fifteen, with many examples of the sixteenth century (see V. Reinburg, French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400-1600, Cambridge, 2014, p. 96 for isolated examples). Of the roughly twenty prayerbooks and associated texts in Danish listed in Middelalderens danke Bønnebøger only three are outside of Denmark itself, and those all in Swedish institutional ownership (Kalmar, Läroverks Bibliotek; Stockholm, KB. A40; and Linköping, Theol. 217). Thus, this manuscript is almost certainly the only such work in any form of Danish which might appear on the market again, and most probably one of the very few early manuscripts in Danish still in private ownership. Additional Note: The presence of a previously overlooked catchword “Det” on the last leaf of the original parchment section of this codex indicates that a leaf or so is missing from the end of this section. Please note: that the original parchment section of this codex is missing a leaf or so from its end Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
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