Close-ups
Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look, drawn to its real size; it is sold unframed unless the description says otherwise.
Scripture
Four Illuminated Letters from French Bibles, Antique Print, 1849
Anno Domini MDCCCXLIX1849
€230
$255 · £190
Original print, not a reproduction
Ships worldwide from the Netherlands, flat or rolled, insured and tracked. 14-day returns.
- Date
- 1849
- Sheet size
- 11 × 8.3 in (28 × 21 cm)
- Technique
- Chromolithograph
- Coloring
- Printed color
- Condition
- Good. Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.
- Faith
- Christianity, Judaism
- Collection
- Scripture
- Era
- 1800 to 1849, Travellers and the costume books
- Stock no.
- BG-12228-2-18
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Four great initials on one sheet, each lettered with its source: a letter I of the ninth century from the Biblia Sacra numbered 2, a letter V of the eleventh from the first volume of another Biblia Sacra, a letter S of the eleventh from a psalter of the Oratoire, and a fifteenth century letter F from a manuscript in the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal. The S is the finest, a rope of gold interlace knotted against a dotted red ground; the V is set in a panel of lapis blue.
Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance was issued in Paris between 1848 and 1851 in five volumes under the literary direction of Paul Lacroix and the artistic direction of Ferdinand Sere. This plate belongs to the second volume, dated 1849. Its chromolithographs were drawn from the originals by artists sent into the libraries and collections of France, Belgium and Germany, and printed by Lemercier of Paris or by Engelmann et Graf.
Single decorated letters are among the most familiar images in manuscript illumination, and an initial can be chosen to match a name. Four on one sheet show four different solutions to the same problem, and the plate is best kept whole. It works above a desk or in a narrow hall.
Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.
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