Annunciation to the Shepherds, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin [France (Paris), 1405-10]

single leaf, 185x134mm, vellum, with a miniature for Terce in the Hours of the Virgin, 2 columns, 20 lines, 121x83mm, outer borders slightly stained and cropped, slightly rubbed, in the card and glass mount specially made for Chester Beatty

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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A fine miniature from a major manuscript newly attributed to the young Bedford Master, identifiable with Haincelin of Hagenau, court painter to Louis de Guyenne, son of the French King Charles VI, with exquisite borders by the illuminator who contributed to the Belles Heures for the Duke of Berry, one of the greatest bibliophiles of the Middle Ages

Two miniatures from the parent manuscript, Pentecost and the Coronation of the Virgin, were ascribed by Millard Meiss to the Luçon Master (French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, 1967, pp.358-9). Five others, sold in our rooms 3 December 1968, lot 23A-E, were subsequently attributed to the same artist and his workshop, and this attribution has been repeated ever since. It has been overlooked that Meiss related the latter miniatures to the Master of Berry’s Cleres Femmes (The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 1974, p.375). The present miniature, however, is by neither of these two artists and was unknown to Meiss.

The animated figures of the shepherds, with vigorously modelled faces, and the subtle depiction of animals and landscape, are in fact characteristic of a style defined by Meiss as 'the Bedford Trend', predating the style of the Bedford Master in the 1420s. It has recently been suggested that it is the young Bedford Master who is active in some of the manuscripts previously described as Bedford Trend (I. Villela-Petit, Le Bréviaire de Châteauroux, 2003, pp.48-51; M. Hofmann in Mélanges en l’honneur de François Avril, 2007, pp.99-109). The present leaf is close to the Bedford Master’s earliest work in a manuscript of Sallust datable to 1404 (Paris, BnF, lat. 9684; see Paris 1400, exh.cat., 2004, no.117A). The Bedford Master can probably be identified with the Alsatian artist Haincelin of Hagenau who is recorded in Paris from 1403 to 1424. In 1409, he became enlumineur en titre of the Dauphin Louis de Guyenne, son of the French King Charles VI. An unfinished Missal illuminated by the Bedford Master includes the portrait of the patron; the illumination of the manuscript was probably abandoned when the Dauphin died in 1415 (Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, ms.406; Paris 1400, no.70).

The decoration of the text pages and margins has been attributed to one of the illuminators who contributed to the borders of the Duke of Berry's Belles Heures (New York, Cloisters, 54.1.1; for the borders see A. Farber in Gesta, XXXII, 1, 1993, pp.21-39). The chief decorators of the Belles Heures, dubbed A- and B-Masters, worked in deluxe manuscripts made for the Duke and other high-raking patrons. Both collaborated on Gaston Phébus’ Livre de la Chasse, which was gifted in 1661 to the French King Louis XIV (Paris, BnF, fr. 616; Paris 1400, no.139) and on a fine Book of Hours illuminated by the Master of the Brussels Initials, which also was probably destined for the Dauphin Louis de Guyenne, son of the French King Charles VI (London, BL, Add. 29433, see ibid., no.169B). The individual manner of forming initials and decorated bars with sprouting penwork rinceaux is characteristic of these decorators. The softly coloured drolleries in the outer margins can also be found in another collaborative commission, a Book of Hours dated by the scribe ‘m.cccc.vij’, the year when the bridges of Paris were brought down by floods (Oxford, Bodleian, MS. Douce 144). The Book of Hours to which the present leaf belonged stands apart in having miniature pages with illustrated bas-de-page scenes.  In the present example, a tiny lamb crouches under the script in a narrow landscape, painted in the same soft colours as the drolleries.

provenance

The parent volume, already imperfect and missing at least three miniatures, was sold in our rooms, 20 July 1916, lot 954, to Quaritch. It was bought by Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968) in 1917 and became his Western MS.104. As was his custom, he extracted the twelve miniatures from the volume and had them framed separately in specially made card and glass mounts of which the present lot includes an example. The post-1917 provenance of the miniatures is as follows:

(1) Annunciation to the Shepherds. Exchanged with A.S. Yahuda in 1931; bought from Eisemann by Herbert Bier and Edmund Schilling, 31 October 1939, and sold on 29 December to Grete Ring; Sotheby’s, 6 December 2001, lot 16, bought by the present owner. (2-4) Adoration of the Magi, Presentation in the Temple, and Flight into Egypt. Given by Chester Beatty to Harold K. Hochschild in 1931; given by him in 1979 to Princeton Museum of Art (Inv.nos. 1979-36, 37, and 38). (5) Coronation of the Virgin. Exchanged with A.S. Yahuda in 1931; Louis V. Randall (né Ludwig Rosenthal) (1873-1972), of Bern and Montreal, by 1960 (see ‘Art de l’Enluminure’, Vie des Arts, no.21, 1960, pp.12-13 with col.pl.; Europäische Kunst um 1400, exh.cat. Vienna, 1962, no.126); J. Günther, Mittelalterliche Handschriften und Miniaturen, Cat. 2, 1993, p.265; private collection, Germany. (6) Christ in Majesty. Sotheby’s, 3 December 1968, lot 23C (col.pl.), bought by Maggs Bros, £4,000; Herbert Bier; John Goelet; J. Günther, Miniatures and Illuminated Leaves, Cat.6, 2002, no.31 (col. pl.); private collection, Germany. (7) Crucifixion. Sotheby’s, 3 December 1968, lot 23B (ill.: pl.30), bought by Maggs Bros, £1,500; Herbert Bier; John Goelet; present whereabouts unknown. (8) Pentecost. Exchanged with A.S. Yahuda, 1931; bought from Eisemann by Herbert Bier, 31 October 1939, sold to Edmund Schilling, 2 April 1943; Dr Francis Springell (1898-1974) and his wife; sold in our rooms, 28 June 1962, lot 49 (ill.), bought by Brod; private collection, New York. (9) Virgin and Child in a Garden. Sotheby’s, 3 December 1968, lot 23A (ill: pl.29), bought by Maggs Bros, £3,200; Herbert Bier; John Goelet; accidentally destroyed by fire in Germany in 1998. (10) Last Judgement. Sotheby’s, 3 December 1968, lot 23E, bought by Maggs Bros, £1,900; Herbert Bier; John Goelet; present whereabouts unknown. (11) Funeral Service. Sotheby’s, 3 December 1968, lot 23D, bought by Herbert Bier for £2,200, and sold for £2,800 on 6 February 1969 to John Goelet, by whom it was given on 18 December 1973 to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in honour of Hanns Swarzenski (Inv.no. 1973-691; W.R. Levin, Images of Love and Death, exh.cat., 1975, no.12, pl.LXI). (12) St Margaret and female patron. Exchanged with A.S. Yahuda, 1931; bought from Eisemann by Herbert Bier and Edmund Schilling, 31 October 1939, sold to H.E. Schwabe, 1 March 1940; Sotheby’s 7 December 1992, lot 13 (col.pl.), bought by Princeton Museum of Art (Inv.no. y1992-163).