Leaf from an English Book of Hours, Use of Sarum, with a miniature of a Dominican friar in prayer, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [England (probably London), c. 1420]

Single leaf, with a large rectangular miniature of a tonsured friar in Dominican robes, kneeling in a grassy area as a banderole emerges from his hands and curves upwards to enclose a woman's face (most probably the Virgin), the whole before a tessellated background decorated with red and blue dots, within a full border of rinceaux foliage terminating in gold ivy leaves and coloured seed pods and acanthus leaves, reverse blank, signs of water damage to top of reverse, slight scuffing and fading overall, in fair condition, 104 by 69mm.

This is the owner portrait of a now dispersed English Book of Hours. In our sale on 6 July 2021, lot 97, we noted that despite once containing the Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget of Sweden, the parent volume was not made for a Brigittine, and the robes of the friar here show that he was a Dominican instead. Despite the condition this is still a charming English portrait of a monastic book owner.

See also next three lots.