Illuminated zoomorphic initial from a Choirbook [Germany (Franconia or northern Bavaria?), mid-13th century]

cutting, 80x80mm, vellum, inhabited initial 'F', the descender cut off (de Ricci mistook the ‘F’ for an ‘A’), laid down on cardboard, framed

 

(1) Madame Fould: her anonymous sale (as ‘Madame X’), Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6 Dec. 1926, part of lot 4, together with a historiated initial ‘A’, now McCarthy Coll. (2) ROBERT LEHMAN (1892-1969), New York banker, art-collector, and philanthropist; his MS 89 (de Ricci, Census, II, p.1707); his collection on deposit at The Metropolitan Museum; sold en bloc to J. Günther in 2004 and bought by the present owner in 2005.

This cutting is extremely similar to one from the collections of John Ruskin (d.1900), and Eric Korner (his sale in our rooms, 19 June 1990, lot 4, with col. ill.). Another very similar cutting of an initial ‘U’ was sold in our rooms, 18 June 1991, lot 5. The Korner initial was tentatively attributed to Alsace by comparison with the Schernberg Psalter (Donaueschingen sale in our rooms, 21 June 1982, lot 11); there are also similarities to manuscripts from places further east, including Bamberg and Würzburg (cf. Swarzenski, Die lateinischen illuminierten Handschriften, 1936). It is likely that they and the present cutting come from a single manuscript, which must have been cut up before 1900.