A FUNERAL SERVICE, WITH ST MICHAEL BATTLING THE DEVIL FOR A SOUL, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, with 5 text leaves from the same manuscript, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, perhaps Châlons, c.1480].

A FUNERAL SERVICE, WITH ST MICHAEL BATTLING THE DEVIL FOR A SOUL, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, with 5 text leaves from the same manuscript, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, perhaps Châlons, c.1480].

An engaging miniature with fantastically lavish borders inhabited by multiple species of birds.

145 x 97mm. The miniature opening the Office of the Dead, the initial ‘D’ with the heraldic shield or, a lion rampant azure, langued and armed gules, 14 lines, ruled space: 65 x 53mm, f.97 in the parent manuscript (a few creases and small losses of pigment to the sky). [With]: 5 text leaves from the same manuscript, all with lively one-sided borders inhabited by birds, ff.37, 44, 50, 52 and 53 in the parent manuscript (occasional smudging and losses of pigment). All in double-sided card mounts. Provenance: (1) Perhaps made in Châlons, to judge by the text of the Office of the Dead in the parent manuscript, which had an image of the male patron (f.91v), and a heraldic shield like the one in the present miniature in the initial below the Deposition miniature (f.63v). (2) François-Michel-César Le Tellier (d.1781), Marquis de Courtanvaux. (3) Edward Mars Elmhirst (d.1957): his bookplate; crest and initials on binding. (4) At least one leaf (see S. Gwara, A Census of Medieval Manuscripts in South Carolina Collections, no 82) was already removed when the parent manuscript was sold at Sotheby’s, 14 June 1954, lot 32. (5) Harry Walton (d.2007): his sale at Bloomsbury’s, New York, 3 April 2009, lot 15; broken-up soon afterwards.

Three miniatures from the same manuscript were sold at Sotheby’s on 6 December 2011, lot 9; three more on 7 July 2015, lots 42–44; and a further on 6 December 2016, lot 23.