Clock is ticking to save 15th century Hours of the Passion illuminated manuscript
Culture Minister, David Lammy, has placed a temporary export bar on a beautiful 15th century illuminated manuscript of the Hours of the Passion. Previously unavailable to scholars and mostly absent in literature on manuscript illumination of the period, this will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the manuscript in the United Kingdom.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Culture Minister, David Lammy, has placed a temporary export bar on a beautiful 15th century illuminated manuscript of the Hours of the Passion. Previously unavailable to scholars and mostly absent in literature on manuscript illumination of the period, this will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the manuscript in the United Kingdom.
The Minister's ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, run by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the manuscript is of outstanding aesthetic importance.
The manuscript, which comes from the collection of the late Lord Wardington, is a book of hours of the highest quality from the Bedford Workshop in Paris, the most important centre of manuscript illumination in Europe in the 15th century.
The decision on the export licence application for the manuscript will be deferred for a period ending on 17 June inclusive. This period may be extended until 17 October inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the manuscript at the recommended price of £635,200.00 excluding VAT is expressed.
Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the manuscript should contact the owner's agent through:
The Secretary The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Victoria House, Southampton Row London WC1B 4EA
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.
2. This is a major manuscript that has not hitherto been available to scholars and has hardly featured in the literature on manuscript illumination of the period. The anonymous artist known as the Bedford Master is named after John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, brother of King Henry V and regent of France, for whom the artist produced the Bedford Hours now in the British Library. The Bedford workshop was the foremost producer of illuminated manuscripts in Paris for much of the first half of the 15th century. But the identification of the Master's hand, and the attribution of manuscripts to his collaborators, followers, and imitators ( who employ similar styles, compositions, and motifs ), has proved more than usually problematic. Some of the illuminations in the Wardington Hours are in the style of the Dunois Master, who seems to have succeeded the Bedford Master as the leader of the Bedford workshop.
3. The Wardington Hours ( so called as it comes from the collection of the late Lord Wardington ) contains only the relatively rare Hours of the Passion ( a text also found in the Bedford Hours ); it is not a complete Book of Hours in itself. The Wardington manuscript probably once formed part of a Book of Hours which is today in the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Production of the manuscript may have begun in the 1410s but not been completed until the 1440s; its original patronage is unknown. The Huntington and Wardington parts had certainly been detached by the 18th century at the latest ( the date of the present binding of the Wardington Hours as an independent volume ). The Wardington part belonged to the Parisian family of de Courgy in the 18th century; its earliest English owner was Henry Pomeroy, second Viscount Harberton ( 1749-1829 ).
4. The Wardington Hours, with its eight large miniatures illustrating the story of the Passion from the Betrayal of Christ to His Entombment, is a beautiful manuscript in its own right. The relative seclusion in which it has hitherto dwelt may have contributed to the freshness of its condition and the brilliance of its colours. The Bedford style is one of delicacy and refinement and the figures are nimble, expressive, and full of vitality. The settings are equally distinctive, with their gently curving hills, dramatic mountain crags, and complex architecture. The miniatures are full of action, but they do not thereby lose focus: the central drama and the attention to detail are held in a balance whose perfection entitles them to be viewed as outstanding, even for a period often viewed as the high point of the illuminator's art.
5. Further details about the manuscript can be found in the auction catalogue at the following link http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159320234 by using the event finder to search for Sale No L06414 - The Wardington Library: Incunabula and the Wardington Hours on 05 December 2006 at 10.30, session 1, Lot 43.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport 2-4 Cockspur Street London SW1Y 5DH http://www.culture.gov.uk
Client ref 051/07
GNN ref 146367P
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