Catalog Archive
Auction 153, Lot 751

"[Book of Hours Leaf]", Kerver, Thielman

Subject: Early Printing

Period: 1505 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Black & White

Size:
4.3 x 6.3 inches
10.9 x 16 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This leaf is from the brief transitional period when the new technology of printing with movable type was combined with the more labor intensive methods of hand painting. The earliest printers were trained in the manuscript tradition and incorporated the conventions of historiated initials and illustrations into their early work. At first they left those spaces blank for the illuminator to complete entirely by hand. Later they developed printing methods (using woodcuts or iron engravings) to decorate the leaves.

Superb vellum leaf from this important transitional period when books began to be printed from movable type, decorated with metal-cut illustrations and combined with hand-painted illuminated initials. It is printed on vellum in black. Both the recto and verso have an ornamental border depicting mythical animals. The text is from St. John, chapters 18 and 19. The central image on recto depicts Jesus being tormented by the Roman soldiers, and on verso is Jesus before Pilate. The border also features illustrations of a centaur, hunting scenes, and people picking apples.

Thielman Kerver was a printer in Paris, who worked "in vico sancti Iacobi ad signum Vnicornis & ibidem venales habent" (in Saint Jacob's lane under the sign of the Unicorn where they are also for sale). He began printing Books of Hours in 1497 and continued until his death in 1522. His widow, Iolande Bonhomme, took over the firm, and continued to produce liturgical books until 1556. Kerver's work is much less common than that of his colleagues, Simon Vostre and the Hardouins.

References:

Condition: B+

Light toning and soiling.

Estimate: $110 - $140

Sold for: $65

Closed on 5/20/2015

Archived