The Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, Winter 1926-27 [Part II]

In the previous post, we left the BFAC exhibition looking at a leaf hanging on the wall just inside the door to the Gallery. In the first exhibition-case in the Gallery was the set of six full-page miniatures illuminated by William de Brailes, lent by Chester Beatty, and now at the Fitzwilliam Museum (MS 330; all six are online here), including the one shown above, which is no. 2 of those listed below:

The Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, Winter 1926-27 [Part I]

Most readers of this blog will be aware of the landmark 1908 exhibition of illuminated manuscripts held by the Burlington Fine Arts Club (BFAC) in 1908. In a previous post, I discussed two lesser-known exhibitions of illuminated manuscripts held by the BFAC, in 1874 and 1886.

Even less well known that either of these two exhibitions, however, each of which is commemorated by a printed catalogue, is an exhibition held during the winter of 1926 to 1927, for which there is no published catalogue.

There is, however, a typescript draft catalogue which only survives in a single copy, as far as I am aware. It was in the BFAC archive transferred to the library of the V&A Museum when the BFAC was wound-up in 1951.

Boerner Auction CX, Addendum

Following on from a recent post, I have realised that lot 51 in the Boerner catalogue, later lot 32 in the Lanna-Prag catalogue, was later owned by Edouard Kann and Robert Lehman, and is now in The Met, NYC, where all this provenance is recorded.

[Source]

But, to judge by their online description, The Met is apparently unaware that another of its leaves was also in the Boerner auction, as lot 17, where it was attributed to 13th-century France:

Like the Psalter leaf now at Harvard, it was apparently unsold in the auction, and re-offered by Boerner in a fixed-price catalogue the following year:

It was given to The Met in 1939 by Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell, and is now attributed to Swabia, c.1400:

[Source]

The priest's scroll reads:

"Prespiter Albert(us) hui(us) libri tibi munus. | Dat pia virgo p(re)ces p(ro) me peto ferte sorores"

And the nun's reads "Mater mis(eri)c(or)die miserere mei. Liugardi."

The Met description and a web-search suggest that the leaf is unpublished, apart from the Boerner catalogues, which is surprising for such an interesting and unusual miniature.

The Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse Miniatures

I have now published the second page of ongoing work-in-progress to track down the most recent known whereabouts of leaves and cuttings from various manuscripts, and reproductions of them.

This new page currently concerns the Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse. A link to it also appears under the "Membra disiecta" heading on the right-hand navigation panel.

A Little-Known Manuscript Dated 1471, made for Ercole d’Este, Duke of Ferrara

Rather than attempt a full blog-post this week, I will just link to one that I wrote for the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, that was posted online yesterday.

Boerner Auction Catalogue CX, 1912

On a couple of occasions in past blogs I have referred to the catalogue of an auction held in Leipzig in November 1912 by C.G. Boerner.

Cuttings from an Early 14th-Century Cistercian Gradual

As promised in last week's post, I am today sharing the first in a series of pages on which I will try to collect together dispersed leaves and cuttings, and also keep track up new discoveries.

The first manuscript to be treated is a series of cuttings from a Gradual, presumably Cistercian, because several depict monks dressed in white.

The unusual style -- which is not very refined, but is extremely appealing -- combines Netherlandish and Germanic features, suggesting the Lower Rhine; previous attributions include France, Flanders, Lake Constance, north-western Germany, and Cologne. Dates from c.1300 to c.1350 have been proposed in the past.

This link should take you to the new page, and you can find a link to the right, below the "Blog archive".