Manuscripts from the Collection of W. Charles Fewtrell

A couple of years ago (in this post) we looked at some of the illuminated cuttings, since dispersed, from an intersting album, and we later (in this one) identified the owner as W. Charles Fewtrell of Liverpool.

He also owned at least two albums of material relating to medieval manuscripts compiled by John Bradley, the author of important 19th-century works including A Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers and Copyists, with Reference to Their Works and Notices of Their Patrons ... (3 vols., 1887-89).

The Grolier Club in New York has a number of other albums, apparently put together by Fewtrell using material from Bradley:

Fewtrell provided a Contents page which begins: 

"Like the companion volume this contains much valuable information about Mediaeval Illumination in the handwriting of Mr J. W. Bradley with numerous clever facsimiles in water-colour, in addition to pen-and-ink drawings all illustrating the text. ..."

 

 

Before I identified Fewtrell by name, his illuminated cuttings were recognisable by the handwriting of the captions that accompany them, with -- among other features -- a distinctive angular "h":

In preparation for a codicology Summer School class in June, I looked through my images of manuscripts at the University of London's Senate House Library and found two more manuscripts with the same distinctive handwriting on the front flyleaves. The first is a modest Book of Hours:

London, Senate House Library, MS 509

 

 

The second is a portion of a very fine French Missal (a detail of the Te igitur initial is shown at the top of this page):

London, Senate House Library, MS 541

Fewtrell therefore had an even more interesting collection than I had previously realised, and I am optimistic that more manuscripts from it will be recognised in due course.