Master BF and the Holford Collection

In January this year, Birmingham city Art Museum put images of its illuminated cuttings and leaves online. They provide material for at least two blogposts close to my interests.

As every follower of this blog knows by now: the first auction dedicated solely to illuminated manuscript cuttings was the Celotti sale at Christie's, 26 May 1825; the catalogue was written by William Young Ottley (1771-1836), who bought extensively at the sale; and Ottley's own collection was sold about a decade later 1838.

Another Leaf of the Missal of Johannes von Giltlingen (Augsburg, c. 1485)

OK, despite what I wrote earlier today, here's a very brief post, lacking in detail.

The Missal of Johannes von Giltlingen has been published a few times in the past few decades, most recently in the Beyond Words exhibition catalogue, in an entry by James Marrow [online here], in which he cites the known leaves, and ends by saying:

"Considering the pace at which decorated and illustrated leaves from the commission have been recognized in recent decades, one hopes that some of these presumed missing leaves will also be located."

"The Bookhunter on Safari" Blog

I don't have time to write a proper blogpost myself this weekend (or next weekend), so instead I will point readers to the "The Bookhunter on Safari" blog.

It is written by Laurence Worms, owner of Ash Rare Books and founder-organiser of the Book Collecting Seminar at Senate House, University of London, which I have attended whenever possible for the past few years.

A particularly provenance-related post is The Most Successful Book-Huntress in the World, with a follow-up: The Real Clara Millard.

At Home With Robert Forrer in 1937

[Source]

By chance I recently came across an article about Robert Forrer (who has been mentioned in several previous posts, e.g. here): Jean R. Debrix, ‘Visages d’Alsace: M. Robert Forrer’, La vie en Alsace (1937), pp. 132–36.

This includes seven photographs of the interior of Forrer's home, on the walls of which hang framed manuscript leaves and cuttings, including the one above, and these two:

Looking closely, I recognised an old friend.

The Holford Album

I ended the previous blogpost [not including its small addendum] by mentioning the Holford Album of illuminated cuttings, which was loaned by George Lindsay Holford (1860-1926) to an exhibition in London, just a year after the death of his father, the collector, Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892).

In 1927, after George's own death, two well-illustrated catalogues of the collection appeared in print (as detailed in that previous post) but by this time the album had been taken apart, and the cuttings framed.

What do we know about the origin and later history of the album?

Whitehead-Holford-Malcolm: A Small Addendum

In my previous post I suggested that the initials transcribed by a British Library cataloguer as "J. M. W.", that are inscribed on the back of the miniature shown above, should in fact be read as "T. M. W.", the initials of Thomas Miller Whitehead.

I have now found near-certain confirmation that he did indeed own it.

Whitehead-Holford-Malcolm

I have been working recently on various collections of illuminations, including that of R. S. Holford [Wikipedia], attempting to trace the present whereabouts of each item.

In the course of tracing Holford's miniatures, I was reminded that he lent several to the 1862 International Exhibition [Wikipedia] at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). The catalogue is available online through Google Books and Archive.org:

Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediæval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods, on Loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862, edited by J.C. Robinson (revised edition: London, January 1863).

The Holford miniatures were catalogued in detail twice in 1927, each time with numerous reproductions, so we have a very good idea of its contents before dispersal:

Robert Benson, The Holford Collection, Dorchester House, with 200 Illustrations, from the Twelfth to the End of the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols (London: Humphrey Milford).

and

Sotheby & Co, The Holford Library, Part I: Catalogue of the Magnificent Series of Illuminations on Vellum, Forming Part of the Collections at Dorchester House, Park Lane, the Property of Lt.-Col. Sir George Holford, K.C.V.O. (Deceased) ... 12th of July, 1927.

In principle, therefore, it ought to be easy to identify items from the collection. In practice, however, it is not always so simple.