Calendar from a Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [French Flanders (perhaps region of Binche or Mauberge), c.1450]

12 leaves (once individually framed and hence separate), 205mm. by 147mm., the Calendar entries in red, blue and liquid gold in an ornamental and angular late gothic bookhand, text within thin frames of gold, pink or blue bars heightened with white, initials in same on contrasting grounds, three-quarter borders of colourful acanthus leaves and other foliage and flowers with numerous gold bezants, two scenes in bas-de-page of each leaf (occupations and Zodiac: January: a man and a woman seated before a roaring fire, Aquarius emptying his water vessel within a gothic interior; February: two men cutting wood, two silver fish (partly oxidised but with no damage to surrounding leaf); March: two men digging fields, Aries the ram; April: a scholar leading his class through a meadow, Taurus the bull; May: a lord and a lady on horseback, the lord with a hawk on his hand, Gemini, the twins seated before a minstrel; June: cutting hay, Cancer the crab; July: harvesting crops, Leo the lion; August: threshing corn, Virgo; September: treading grapes, Libra with her scales; October: sowing seeds, Scorpio; November: killing hogs, Sagittarius as a centaur; December: killing a calf, Capricorn the goat) as well as three birds or drolleries on each leaf (including four human-headed birds, a woman spinning wool, three human-headed quadrupeds (one with a face for a bottom), some sheep on a small hill, a white hound, two men tussling over a hat or parcel, two men playing bagpipes and two lions playing whistles, a man eating grapes and two others drinking wine from a barrel, an archer, a musician, a man driving two pigs, and a realistic monkey, some minor scuffs and spots, tape residue to edges of versos from previous framing (but with no affect to text or painting), overall outstanding condition

From a large and fine Book of Hours from French Flanders, perhaps in the region of Binche or Mauberge in Belgium (note the rare local saint, Amalberga, 10 July). The figures with flat dispassionate faces angled to the side and the profusion of whimsical detail in the drolleries point to the influence of the Masters of Guillebert de Mets (fl.1410-45 in Grammont or Ghent: cf. Miniatures Flamandes 1404-1482, 2011, pp.148-65).