Sales catalogue: Quaritch

Date:
September 1886
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/17/44
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue: Quaritch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/100 (page 3455)
    wonderful approach to the skill which Holbein and his followers displayed half a century afterwards. Some leaves seem to be missing in the text. 35687 BOAISTUAU (Pierre) surnommé Launay, His- TorrES Proprcreuses, sm. 4to. beautifully written MS. THE AUTHOR’S DEDICATION COPY TO QUEEN ELIZABETH, weth 42 fine Miniatures, coloured and uluminated, and 33 small tiluminated initials, in the original (7 ebacked) English calf gilt binding, gilt and gotfered edges, £80. 1559-60 The illustrations are drawn by a bold and skilful hand, the landscape accessories are admirable, and the illumination (which means that the lights and reflections are produced by the use of gold and silver) most effectively worked out. The designs of the pictures and the character of the handwriting are unmistakably Hnglish, and prove consequently that when Boaistuau came to London in 1559 to present his book to the English Queen, he did not bring with him an illuminated copy done in France, but only his own draught MS. from which he employed an English penman, and an English artist to execute the necessary labour. The result was this fine book—a royal volume, which forms a treasury of English art in the early years of Elizabeth. Unluckily the title and the last page of the preface have been torn out, but the book is otherwise in perfect and unimpeachable condition. We have the full dedication in which the author announces that he has come expressly to London to present his book to her Majesty before getting it printed, and states that no one else had yet seen it. As we know it was first printed in Paris in 1560, this statement sufficiently indicates the date of the MS. and there can be no question about its having been executed for the Queen. The binding, which is a fine specimen of English ornamental work, was done by the same binder as Archbishop Parker usually employed. Il. FLEMISH ART of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. 35688 Heures de Bregilles. HORE SCIy CRUCIS, SCI SPIRITUS, VESPERE BEATE VIRGINIS, etc. sm. 4to. superb manuscript on vellum ; with alluminated borders and 31 exquisite Miniatures in camaieu-gris, unrivalled for their beauty 238