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[DELFT PRAYER BOOK]

Getijden van OLV
Delft
ca. 1475
€18.000 - €26.000

8vo (163 x 110 mm), 200 ff, decorated manuscript in Dutch, on vellum, (writing area: ca. 105 x 67 mm.) with regular text (littera textualis by the hand of one scribe) in red & black ink in a single column (text-leaves: 21 lines). Leaves foliated in pencil in upper blank corner. Entirely rubricated in red and blue. Decoration: with 37 larger initials in red or blue, with elaborate contrasting penwork terminating in curlicues and flower-heads in borders (by a member of the 'scallop group'), 7 variegated initials in same enclosing scrolling penwork, with text enclosed by two gold bars and full borders or ornate penwork. The borders also enclosing golden flowers and corner-pieces, a pelican in a basket-like nest, two birds either side of a golden chalice, a pelican pecking at its breast to feed his young surrounded by banderoles, a golden bird in flight surrounded by banderoles, a peacock holding a banderole in its beak. The distinctively detailed and complex puzzle-initials and whirling and twisting red and blue marginal penwork identifies as the work of the Delft Master (scallop group). They are all in the same simple style as the present one. Contents: Calendar (f. 1-12), Hours of the Virgins (f. 13-45), Hours of the Eternal Wisdom (f. 46-65), Major Hours of the Cross (f. 66-91), Hours of the Holy Spirit (f. 92-115), Seven Penitential Psalms (f. 116-123), Litany (f. 123-132), prayers (f. 132-146), Office for the Dead (f. 147-182), reading from St. Barnaby (f. 183-198). Contemporary binding: blind-stamped calf over oak boards, with clasps, spine skillfully repaired. In a custom-made solander box

"Cf. Anne Korteweg, Kriezels, aubergines en takkenbossen, nr. 33, p. 58/59/ 66. Also compares to Den Haag, KB, 135 E 22. (schulp- en blokranden) Cf. James Marrow. The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting (1989), n° 58. Cf. Kathryn Rudy. De productie van manuscripten in het Sint-Ursulaklooster te Delft (2010) in 'Delft, Cultuurhistorisch magazine voor Delft' Provenance: - Almost certainly written and illustrated in Delft, and probably for use in the Franciscan convent of St. Ursula there. With the local saint, Hippolytus, 13 August, in the Calendar, as well as the nearby Utrecht saints, Jeroen (in red), 17 August and Lambrecht (in red), on 17 September). The artists are those of the so-called Delft Master (scallop group). - 17th or 18th century inscriptions in Dutch on final end-lvs, and certainly in private hands by then. - Sir Robert Chambers (1802-1871) of Edinburgh, bibliophile, bookseller and publisher, his armorial bookplate with motto ""spero"". He was born with 6 fingers on both hands and 6 toes at each foot, operations to correct this abnormality left him partially lame. Cutting from a late 19th or early 20th century English sale catalogue advertising the book for £60, perhaps from sale after his death. - Southport libraries: their institutional stamp in blue ink on last but one end-leaf, most probably deaccessioned and sold privately alongside other volumes in 1992. - Sold Bloomsbury 25 June 1992, lot 117 to Quaritch. Then their cat. n° 1173, the Low Countries, n°19 - Belgian collection"