1408 LEAF FROM A HIGHLY IMPORTANT BOOK OF HOURS - ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT VELLUM

Description

SINGLE 1408  LEAF FROM A HIGHLY IMPORTANT BOOK OF HOURS
A SINGLE MINIATURE
ON A LEAF FROM THIS SAME MANUSCRIPT SOLD FOR
GBP 43,750 in 2015
ONE OF THE FINEST DECORATED BOOKS OF HOURS OF THE PERIOD: WORKSHOP OF THE MAZARINE MASTER
A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A MASTERPIECE OF MEDIEVAL DECORATION SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE
The leaf:
A single leaf  (2 sides) from the Chester Beatty Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum, Paris, 1408.  13 single and two-line initials and elaborate vinework of the highest quality.   174 x 130mm.
The manuscript leaf comes from  one of the few securely dated Books of Hours: the Chester Beatty Book of Hours, illuminated by the Mazarine Master in the year the bridges were washed away in Paris.    The colophon of the surviving manuscript (not this leaf but the same surviving manuscript) reads 'made in the year 1408 when the bridges fell in Paris',  Christopher De Hamel  notes in his
A History of Illuminated Manuscripts
(p. 173)  "All three bridges of Paris were swept away by floods between 29 and 31 January 1408... One wonders of the bookseller's stall was on the bridge.."   Condition: darkened edges from as depicted - see provenance:
Provenance:  " 1) John Boycott Jarman (d.1864) sold at auction  Sotheby's, 13 June 1864, lot 47 and evidently damaged by flooding  whilst in his care in 1846 , attesting to the darkened state of the present lead. 2) Edward Arnold: his sale, Sotheby's, 6 May, 1929, lot 240 purchased by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968): his W Ms. 103, purchased in September 1929.   Sir Alfred had most of the miniatures separately mounted: six were sold in 1932 and three given away in 1939; some text leaves were also dispersed. The rest of the manuscript was lot 58 and 58A-K in the Chester Beatty Sale, Sotheby's, 24 June 1969." [The full provenance of the leaf is cited by Christies for other fragments.  Ref:  Christies :  https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-st-michael-vanquishing-the-devil-miniature-on-5334911/?from=salesummery&intobjectid=5334911&sid=3c5ded9e-be33-406a-bbfb-0c613c35cdc0&lid=1&sc_lang=en}
For a Miniature that  that from the manuscript see:
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5915204