Leaf from a well-known Psalter-Hours, with David as a crowned king

Leaf from a well-known Psalter-Hours, with David as a crowned king and a seated saint in historiated initials, and a strange long-necked drollery in coloured penwork on the reverse, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, [Flanders or the Rhineland, c. 1250-75], single leaf with two historiated initials on the verso: initial ‘C’ (opening the prayer “Concede nos famulus tuos ...”) and ‘D’ (opening the prayer “Dominus qui corda fidelium ...”) in orange or blue overlaid with white brushwork, on gold and coloured frames, the tail of the ‘d’ formed by an orange, yellow and pale green dragon who bites the initial as his tail hangs down the margin into the bas-de-page, mounted on card and so recto not completely visible, but upper outer corner with a charming line-drawn dragon-like drollery with taloned feet and a foliate tongue in red and blue ink, one-line initials in gold or blue with penwork in dark blue or red, geometric line-fillers in gold and colours, text in single column of two sizes of 20 lines of a fine early gothic bookhand, written below topline, a few ink stains, some cracking to initials with losses there, a few small holes and a small missing part of the margin (affecting only edge of dragon’s tail), small spots and stains, else fair condition, 178 x 135mm; laid down on card mount *** Provenance: From a late thirteenth-century Psalter-Hours most probably made for a nun (“abbatissam nostrum”, ‘our abbess’ is mentioned on other leaves in a collect and in the petitions that follow the Litany of Saints). The extent and opulence of the illumination suggest a commission made for a woman of substantial wealth, perhaps even nobility or royalty. The known leaves were traced and discussed by Peter Kidd in the second volume of his catalogue of the collection of Robert McCarthy (vol. II, Spanish, English, Flemish and Central European Miniatures, 2019, no. 20, pp. 106-08), following on from his work published online in his Medieval Manuscripts Provenance blog (see entries for 5 March and 13 June 2015, 9 May 2020 and others; with the present leaf listed in the blogpost for 13 June 2015 among the leaves from the Hours of the Virgin). Illumination: The leaves from this manuscript are all notable for the exceptional fact that every single Psalm and prayer is preceded by a historiated initial (unlike most Psalters and Psalter-Hours where historiated initials might be expected for only the eight major divisions of the text) and the entrancingly inventive and flamboyant line-fillers, often created from animals, drolleries and people. The illumination has previously been attributed to England, Flanders, Eastern France, Lower Lorraine, and the Rhineland, however, as Kidd has noted, the closest parallels are to examples from Flanders and the Rhineland.

Estimation:€4,777.72

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