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The Book of Hours: A Medieval Best-Seller
21 Plays4 years ago
More popular than the Bible: that’s what the richly illustrated volumes known as books of hours—which helped worshipers keep track of each day’s seven canonical prayer periods—were during the Middle Ages. A trove of these objects from the Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg collection is up for sale on April 23 at Christie’s, and in this special episode of the podcast Ben and Christie’s specialist Eugenio Donadoni zoom in on a particularly opulent example illuminated by the mysterious Master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus.
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Transcript
Introduction to Curious Objects Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Curious Objects, brought to you by the magazine Antiques, I'm Ben Miller.
00:00:15
Speaker
This is a bonus episode sponsored by
Christie's Rosenberg Collection Sale
00:00:17
Speaker
Christie's.
00:00:17
Speaker
On April 23rd, Christie's is offering a group of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books, which they call one of the most important ever to have appeared at auction.
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the collection of Elaine and Alexander P. Rosenberg.
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There will be 209 lots, with estimates ranging from a few thousand dollars all the way up into the millions.
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Christie's was eager to give Curious Objects listeners an inside look at the sale, and I'm excited to explore it along with you.
00:00:41
Speaker
Our guide today is Eugenio Donadoni, Christie's Senior Specialist for Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, who joins me now from London.
00:00:49
Speaker
Eugenio, it's a pleasure to talk to you.
00:00:51
Speaker
Great to talk to you.
00:00:53
Speaker
So start by just giving me a sense of the scope of the sale.
00:00:56
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I mentioned there are 209 lots.
00:00:58
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What are the different types of objects included?
Medieval Manuscripts Spotlight
00:01:01
Speaker
Well, there are 17 medieval manuscripts and the rest are early printed books.
00:01:10
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The dawn of printing, really, you know, the late 15th century printed books and books of hours.
00:01:17
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The value of the sale is in these fantastic illuminated manuscripts.
00:01:26
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And they're largely books of hours, with the exception of one, in fact, which is a breviary.
00:01:32
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All the others are books of hours and all made within a relatively short span of time.
00:01:39
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The earliest is from 1410 right up until the 1520s.
00:01:48
Speaker
All largely French.
00:01:49
Speaker
There are three Italian manuscripts, but all the rest are from France.
00:01:53
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So French Books of Ours is really the core of this fantastic, fantastic collection.
Rosenberg Collection Legacy
00:02:00
Speaker
Right.
00:02:00
Speaker
And so in just a few seconds, tell me who were Elaine and Alexander Rosenberg and how did they put the collection together?
00:02:08
Speaker
Well, I mean, there's a, I think that there would have to be an entirely separate podcast to talk about the Rosenberg family because they're really an exceptional backstory and history to the family.
00:02:19
Speaker
Alexander Rosenberg was the son of the very famous art dealer, Paul Rosenberg, one of the great art dealers of the 20th century.
00:02:30
Speaker
And he was also the founder of the American Art Dealers Association.
00:02:38
Speaker
His wife, Elaine, they were very close and they collected together.
00:02:46
Speaker
And this was really very much a sort of a joint enterprise.
00:02:50
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You know, Alexandra had a passion for collecting books from an early age.
00:02:55
Speaker
In fact, you know, most of the books in this sale have a book plate designed for him by Picasso when Alexandra was 14.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:05
Speaker
which is fantastic, which is a view of an open window onto sort of the sea with the initials APR, Alexandra Paul Rosenberg.
00:03:18
Speaker
So evidently, you know, he was collecting books from the tender age of 14.
00:03:23
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Yeah, with Picasso's blessing, no less.
00:03:26
Speaker
Incredible.
00:03:27
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Exactly.
00:03:27
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With Picasso's blessing, no less.
00:03:29
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Exactly.
00:03:30
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But the printed book collection was something that really evolved over the years.
00:03:34
Speaker
I mean, he...
00:03:36
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He got rid of many of the other printed books that he'd collected and restarted afresh several times.
00:03:42
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Whereas the manuscripts he bought largely in the 70s and 80s.
00:03:48
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And it was something that Elaine Rosenberg was very much involved in too.
00:03:53
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And they were great philanthropists and after Alexandra passed away in 1987.
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You know, Elaine carried on the philanthropy of her husband.
00:04:02
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She was a fellow at the Morgan Library and on the visiting committee, she gifted manuscripts of the Morgan Library and the archives of Paul Rosenberg to MoMA.
Notable Book of Hours Highlight
00:04:14
Speaker
Now, for this conversation, we wanted to focus in on one particular object.
00:04:18
Speaker
This is a book of ours from 15th century France made by someone referred to as the master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus.
00:04:27
Speaker
And before we even start talking about it, to give listeners a sense of the significance of this object, it's pictured on the cover of the catalog.
00:04:35
Speaker
You devote, if I count it right, eight catalog pages to the book.
00:04:38
Speaker
That's right.
00:04:40
Speaker
And your auction estimate is... We have to fight to get those pages.
00:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, I can imagine.
00:04:44
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And you've put an estimate on it of one and a half to two and a half million dollars.
00:04:49
Speaker
So this is, you know, one of the marquee lots in the collection.
00:04:54
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But let's start with the basics.
00:04:56
Speaker
So tell me what exactly is a book of hours and what makes them interesting to scholars and collectors?
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:04
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Well, it's the medieval scholar, Léon de Laisse, who passed away several years ago now, but he sort of explained what a book of ours is in possibly the best way.
00:05:14
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I mean, he said it was the bestseller of the Middle Ages.
00:05:18
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And it's true, there was...
00:05:21
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No book that was more popular than the book of ours, it was more popular even than the Bible for a period of 350 years.
00:05:30
Speaker
And in essence, it's a prayer book.
00:05:35
Speaker
And it's called the book of ours because it has several prayers that are meant to be recited at seven canonical times or seven different hours during the day.
00:05:48
Speaker
But what's important about A Book of Hours is that it was made for the laity.
00:05:54
Speaker
So when we look at these objects, we're not thinking about monks or priests or nuns, kneeling in devotion with
00:06:07
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everyday men and women of the Middle Ages.
00:06:11
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And they're highly personalized by these people as well in various different ways.
00:06:17
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They're personalized textually.
00:06:21
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So for example, if an owner had a particular devotion to say, Anthony Abbott, because the name was Antoinette, as is the case in one of the manuscripts in the cell, the Hours of Anne de Neufville,
00:06:37
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you know, they might have a specific prayer to Antony.
00:06:43
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They were also personalised pictorially, you know, with coats of arms, with specific portraits of the patrons.
00:06:54
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So the one we're focusing on, which is the top lot of the sale by the master of the Paris, Bartholomaeus Anglicus, is
00:07:04
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is exceptional.
00:07:06
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I mean, it really is exceptional in the extent of its illumination, the richness and colour and delicacy of execution of the painting of all the miniatures.
00:07:16
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And, you know, obviously when I said earlier that books of ours were for the average men and women of the Middle Ages, I mean,
00:07:24
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There's a huge range of means there.
00:07:29
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You know, they're very poorly made books of ours with minimal illumination.
00:07:36
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But also, depending on your means, if you're a very wealthy member of the court or a very wealthy banker or lawyer, even then, you know, you could afford something truly exceptional.
00:07:47
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And this is something truly exceptional.
00:07:51
Speaker
It's in absolutely pristine condition, as if it had been painted yesterday.
00:07:58
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Really, really opulent, dripping with liquid gold and liquid silver.
00:08:05
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And really the quality of the miniatures is simply unbelievable.
00:08:11
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If only I could convey, you know, seeing it in a podcast, you really have to see it to appreciate it properly.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah, well, I certainly recommend listeners to take a look at Christie's.com.
00:08:24
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You can view everything in the sale, including images of this book.
00:08:29
Speaker
But for people who are just listening at the moment, I mean, if I had the book in front of me and I started flipping through, what would I see?
00:08:38
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Well, you'd see, for a start, you'd see many of the images that are traditionally associated with books of ours over the centuries.
00:08:49
Speaker
So as I said earlier, the book of ours is...
00:08:55
Speaker
times of the day but the focus of a book of hours is really the devotion to the Virgin Mary and most books of hours that we see have scenes from the life of the Virgin
00:09:11
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So as you open the manuscript, you'll see the Annunciation of the Virgin, which in this particular manuscript is just extraordinary.
00:09:19
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It has these fantastic borders that are inhabited by angels and prayer and holding silver scrolls.
00:09:27
Speaker
You'll see the Nativity, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the adoration of the three kings.
00:09:36
Speaker
flight into Egypt.
00:09:37
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So all stories from the life of the Virgin.
00:09:41
Speaker
As you move on you see King David in prayer, the crucifixion, some scenes from the life of Christ.
00:09:48
Speaker
There's a very dramatic miniature towards the end which shows a battle for the soul with St Michael
00:09:58
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rescuing the soul of a recently deceased person from the grip of the devil.
00:10:07
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And this is in a cemetery.
00:10:11
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So really the interest here is just
00:10:18
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with which these miniatures are painted.
Creation and Artists of Books of Hours
00:10:23
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So tell me about the process of making it.
00:10:26
Speaker
I mean, who made it and what sorts of people were making books like this?
00:10:30
Speaker
And what was the process like?
00:10:32
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It must have been highly laborious.
00:10:35
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It was highly laborious and as the years went on and as you move into the 16th century, it really becomes much more of a commercial production with the entire workshops churning out these manuscripts on commission, but also just for stock.
00:10:55
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So people could just walk in and say, I'd like this, this and this, and they'd be put together.
00:11:00
Speaker
And often there were several artists working
00:11:03
Speaker
on a manuscript at the same time and a separate scribe of course as well leaving space for the for the for the miniatures to be painted.
00:11:11
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The specific manuscript is painted by a single artist and we don't know the identity of the artist we call him the master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus
00:11:22
Speaker
because he's named after a livre de propriété de choses by the author Bartholomeus Anglicus, which is a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
00:11:34
Speaker
And actually he's a very interesting artist.
00:11:40
Speaker
And going back briefly to the popularity of books of ours, they were,
00:11:49
Speaker
also a vehicle for many artists, the best vehicle, the major vehicle for artistic expression in the French Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
00:11:59
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So you have artists like our master here who work not just with panel paintings and with illumination, but also work in stained glass and in tempestries.
00:12:18
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But this really was, the Book of Hours really was the most convenient and most popular method for this type of artistic expression.
00:12:26
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And this chap, the master of Paris, Bartholomeus Anglicus, he's responsible for a small number of manuscripts, of which this is by far the richest and the best.
00:12:37
Speaker
But also he is responsible for the...
00:12:42
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the portraits of the patrons in the Devonshire tapestries of the Victorian Albert Museum.
00:12:49
Speaker
So he was working in embroidery.
00:12:53
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He was also responsible for the cartoons of the portraits of the Anjou Dukes in the Cathedral at Le Mans.
00:13:01
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So he's also working in stained glass.
00:13:03
Speaker
And he was also responsible for this beautiful Gothic fresco, which is now in Bachelorette.
00:13:14
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called the Triumph of Death, which is exalted as one of the great pieces of Gothic art in Italy of this period.
00:13:25
Speaker
So he'd actually, you know, gone to Naples, working with the Court of Anjou and painted this fresco.
00:13:32
Speaker
So he was also a frescoist.
00:13:35
Speaker
How are all these attributions made?
00:13:39
Speaker
That's a very interesting question.
00:13:41
Speaker
So there's academic consensus.
00:13:46
Speaker
So this is, you know, when it comes to dealing with something like this collection, this is a very well-published collection.
00:13:54
Speaker
It was the subject of a very important exhibition at the Morgan Library in 1982 and the beginning of 1983 called The Last Flowering.
00:14:05
Speaker
which showcased important manuscripts from American collections and the Rosenberg collection was one of the focal points of this exhibition.
00:14:15
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So there's been a huge amount of study on these manuscripts over the decades and academic consensus has coalesced around, you know, attributions.
00:14:27
Speaker
Interestingly, it's interesting you should say that because there has
00:14:31
Speaker
there had been, there was in the past some debate as to the identity of this, of this artist originally, um,
00:14:39
Speaker
was identified as he was called the October Master because he'd been identified erroneously as the artist responsible for the miniature illustrating the month of October in the calendar of the the famous Très-Richeur du Duc de Berry by the Lamborg brothers which really is the you know the greatest and most important illuminated
00:15:06
Speaker
So he'd originally been identified as that artist.
00:15:15
Speaker
But he later, you know, Francois Avril, the great manuscript scholar Francois Avril and Nicole Reynaud, you know, developed this idea and made this attribution and named him the master of the Paris, Bartholomia Saint Anglicus.
00:15:35
Speaker
So it is, in this case, it's academic consensus over the years.
00:15:39
Speaker
Sometimes when we're dealing with things that are maybe less important, then it's down to our good old eyes.
00:15:49
Speaker
And you're relying on what?
00:15:55
Speaker
On stylistic elements, on elements of construction and craft, material?
00:16:02
Speaker
Exactly.
00:16:02
Speaker
So it's stylistic...
00:16:04
Speaker
Stylistic, compositional, you know, there are very many, especially in the 15th century, there are shared models and shared compositions that are, you know, very peculiar to, or very specific to specific workshops in, you know, in Paris, in Western France, Eastern France, in the South of France.
00:16:26
Speaker
So, you know, if you're, if you see a lot of these things, your eye gets, you know, kind of accustomed to what to look, what to look out for.
00:16:36
Speaker
What might that be?
00:16:37
Speaker
Could you give me an example or two?
00:16:40
Speaker
Um, let's have a, let's have a think.
00:16:43
Speaker
Um,
00:16:45
Speaker
If we're looking, sometimes artists are named, if they're anonymous, they're named after specific traits in their style.
00:16:54
Speaker
So we have the masters of the beady eyes because they paint figures with beady eyes.
00:17:03
Speaker
Wow, I feel a little sorry for that fellow being identified by such a silly way.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yes, well, I mean...
00:17:11
Speaker
Or the masters of the gold scrolls.
00:17:14
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See, that's much nicer.
00:17:15
Speaker
I would much rather be the master of the golden scrolls if I had a choice.
00:17:21
Speaker
Or the master of the pudgy fingers or something like that.
00:17:23
Speaker
You know, you wouldn't want to be something like that.
00:17:26
Speaker
But gold scrolls because of this repeated, you know, iconographic detail of the gold scrolls in the background.
00:17:33
Speaker
And so those are artists that are named specifically after stylistic features in their work.
00:17:40
Speaker
And that's how we can identify them.
00:17:43
Speaker
I've always wanted to name an artist after sort of an interesting and unusual feature.
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:51
Speaker
I've yet to coin an artist's name.
00:17:53
Speaker
Okay, well, let me know when you do.
00:17:54
Speaker
That could make a whole other episode.
00:17:58
Speaker
It'll have to be a good one, though.
00:18:00
Speaker
I have to think about it carefully.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah, well, take your time.
00:18:04
Speaker
You know, they've been around for five, 600 years already.
00:18:08
Speaker
A few more.
00:18:10
Speaker
Exactly.
00:18:11
Speaker
Let's talk a little about value and pricing.
00:18:14
Speaker
And I'm just curious to get a sort of, you know, a bird's eye perspective or a high level view on what is it that makes a book worth?
Valuation of Rare Books
00:18:26
Speaker
Well, maybe I'll put it this way.
00:18:30
Speaker
what is it that makes a book worth thousands?
00:18:33
Speaker
What makes it worth tens of thousands?
00:18:35
Speaker
What makes it worth hundreds of thousands?
00:18:37
Speaker
And what makes it worth, as in this case, millions?
00:18:42
Speaker
That's the million dollar question, isn't it?
00:18:44
Speaker
It's something that we try to do every day in my line of work, which is putting a value on something is a very educated guess.
00:18:59
Speaker
Obviously, you know, when you're dealing with something as unique as a medieval manuscript, you don't have the benefit of direct comparables, you know, direct auction comparables or because every manuscript is unique and every manuscript is different.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yes, you could say,
00:19:14
Speaker
There was a work by the master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus that sold for this amount, you know, 20 years ago, but it wasn't quite as, you know, in good condition.
00:19:25
Speaker
It was incomplete.
00:19:26
Speaker
It wasn't made for an important person and therefore we should put more on this.
00:19:31
Speaker
I mean, that gives us a bit of a gauge.
00:19:35
Speaker
But really the things the things we're looking at and, you know, they change over time, they change, they change with with fashions, if you will, over time as well.
00:19:43
Speaker
And what more collectors are looking for.
00:19:46
Speaker
But but largely speaking, their condition condition is is is essential and completeness.
00:19:54
Speaker
And provenance is hugely important as well.
00:19:57
Speaker
So, you know, so if you have a manuscript that was made for an important patron, perhaps in a, say in a contemporary binding with the initials of that patron and the coats of arms, and that the later was owned by important bibliophiles, for example, this manuscript we've been talking about was owned by Bertram Ashburnham, the fourth Earl of Ashburnham.
00:20:19
Speaker
Then it was owned by Henry Yates Thompson, who was the greatest manuscript collector of his generation, famously wanted to put together the best ever, 100 of the best manuscripts he could acquire.
00:20:34
Speaker
And this manuscript was Manuscript 86 in his collection.
00:20:39
Speaker
And it was owned by Charles Fairfax Murray, the British painter, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty.
00:20:46
Speaker
So this has a really important line of provenance from when it was made to the present day.
00:20:54
Speaker
So a lot of clever people have thought it was valuable.
00:20:57
Speaker
A lot of clever people.
00:20:58
Speaker
Of course, you know, there was another important manuscript in this collection, the Rosenberg collection, which is one of the ones that was...
00:21:04
Speaker
gifted to the Morgan Library and that was the the prayer book of Claude de France so that was you know a prayer book made for a queen and that's hugely important as well so we have we have condition we have provenance and we have extent of illumination as well if you're looking at books of hours so they can books of hours can be depending on the on the mean
00:21:27
Speaker
of the original patron and the original owner.
00:21:30
Speaker
They could be very meagerly illuminated and decorated or very lavishly decorated.
00:21:44
Speaker
and lapis lazuli and the finest and richest pigments by the best artists or by mediocre artists.
00:21:53
Speaker
So that's a qualitative assessment that we need to make as well when looking at art.
00:22:03
Speaker
And all of that, all of that put together tells you whether, you know, something might be worth a few thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, or as in this case, millions.
00:22:14
Speaker
I mean, this specific manuscript has a track record as well, because it was purchased by Alexander Rosenberg in 1977 for $200,000 back in 1977.
00:22:21
Speaker
So a significant price many years ago already.
00:22:22
Speaker
Right.
Books of Hours as Artistic Treasures
00:22:32
Speaker
But still, I think, you know, one and a half to two and a half million may seem like a huge amount of money.
00:22:38
Speaker
And of course, it is a huge amount of money to the likes of me and you.
00:22:41
Speaker
But I don't want to make assumptions.
00:22:44
Speaker
But that's a safe assumption.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's a safe assumption.
00:22:47
Speaker
Good.
00:22:48
Speaker
Antiques podcasting is highly lucrative, but even so.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:54
Speaker
But of course, when you look at it in the context of the art world, what we're looking at here is, and I always like to say that books of ours are like miniature galleries of paintings.
00:23:07
Speaker
We're looking at a book that has 16 paintings in it by a wonderful, wonderful artist.
00:23:18
Speaker
Now, you can imagine that 16 panel paintings would be worth much more than that.
00:23:23
Speaker
So actually, in a relative scale, it's a bargain, if you like.
00:23:32
Speaker
Well, of course, you would say that.
00:23:35
Speaker
Well, I would say that, but also because I'm biased to medieval manuscripts, of course.
00:23:43
Speaker
But, you know, it is really like holding a small gallery of paintings in your hand.
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:23:50
Speaker
Well, I hope I have the opportunity to see it someday.
Conclusion and Auction Viewing Details
00:23:56
Speaker
It's in New York.
00:23:57
Speaker
It'll be on view in New York from the, let me just check the date.
00:24:03
Speaker
I think the view opens on the 17th of April.
00:24:06
Speaker
Oh, fantastic.
00:24:08
Speaker
And goes on till the sale on the 23rd.
00:24:11
Speaker
I'll make a point of paying it a visit then.
00:24:14
Speaker
Now, I realize this has been just the most cursory of glances at the world of books of ours and at this book in particular.
00:24:22
Speaker
But have we done it justice?
00:24:26
Speaker
Have we missed anything significant?
00:24:28
Speaker
No, I think we've I hope we've done it justice.
00:24:32
Speaker
made people interested in wanting to go and see it, or at least, you know, clicking on the website and having a look at all the amazing pictures of it.
00:24:39
Speaker
But really, you know, talking about it doesn't, you know, it doesn't really do it as much justice as looking at the images.
00:24:46
Speaker
I mean, that's where the beauty lies.
00:24:48
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:24:50
Speaker
Well, thank you very much, Eugenio.
00:24:53
Speaker
Best of luck with the sale.
00:24:54
Speaker
Well, thank you very much.
00:24:55
Speaker
Thank you for having me on your podcast.
00:25:03
Speaker
And that's our show.
00:25:04
Speaker
Thanks for listening.
00:25:05
Speaker
Once again, you can see pictures of this book of ours and the other 208 lots at Christie's.com.
00:25:11
Speaker
The sale will take place on Friday, April 23rd.
00:25:15
Speaker
Today's episode was edited and produced by Sammy Delati.
00:25:18
Speaker
Our music is by Trap Rabbit, and I'm Ben Miller.