MISSAL

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A rare, elegantly decorated and sumptuously bound altar missal in the Tridentine rite, produced and embellished with no expense spared, 'Ad maiorem Dei gloria'. Crimson or purple v elvet bindings were often used on presentation copies for princes of the state or church, all the more so when elaborate silver decoration was added. In the present case the arms demonstrate that the owner was the child of the union of two European families of the high nobility, but unfortunately we have been unable to discover more. The armorial bearings (fleur de lys, lions passant, etc) are pretty standard though the orb above the latter is less usual but not indicative. The silver work, which is early baroque, is quite monumental and very richly carved, like an early Grinling Gibbons. The workmanship is not easy to place but there appears to be a mixture of French and German influences which suggests the Netherlands (a centre of book silverwork) or the borderlands of Eastern France and Western Germany, though we doubt the workmanship French. The whole was most likely bound for the family chapel of the Castle of the noble whose arms it bears. The ms addition of the mass of St Anne may be a clue to at least the Christian name of that individual. Gaultier's dramatic engravings are here in very striking clear impression, contrasting with the delicate watercolouring of the historiated initials. A beautiful and historic artefact. Show more