Leaf from a Dutch Book of Hours

Recto
This is the better of the two sides, shown here at about 75% of the original size on a 13 inch monitor

This is a leaf from a Dutch Book of Hours, probably from Utrecht circa 1475 that I temporarily purchased from Phillip Pirages. I returned the page because it was in far worse condition than I imagined; the vellum was deteriorating, the gold on the verso side completely gone, and the paint flaking off in several places. I was quite disappointed, especially as it was a nicely decorated leaf in a style that I just love. Reluctantly, I exchanged it for another leaf. The transactions all went smoothly; these are pleasant people to deal with.

In some ways, I was quite glad to get a chance to see such a damaged leaf, as this gave me an excellent opportunity to get a close look at a leaf that revealed some of the secrets of its makings.

The leaf's approximate dimension is 4.25 inches by 6 inches. The leaf has taken some water damage and has been trimmed from its original size. The vellum is in less than wonderful shape; aside from the browning cause by damp aging and the contraction caused by the water, it has more that100 pinholes in it, noticeable only when held up to the light. As earlier mentioned, the rubrics andgold leaf have suffered some flaking damage. Unfortunately, I did not take measurements of the x-height and other such things before returning the leaf.

Verso

Click Here for an image at 450x594 pixels, straight off the scanner, of the entire verso side of the leaf. Here is an image at 800x1200 pixels. A large size, yes, greatly larger than the actual leaf--excellent for seeing detail.

This is certainly the most elaborate initial on the page. The blue of this initial and the line margin are slightly deeper than the blue of other blue details; those seem more a greyed ultramarine; it may be that the pigment is smalt or low grade lapis lazuli or low grade azurite--or it could be somethingcaused by whatever it was that damaged this book. However, examination of some of the places where the colors have chipped off leads me to believe that the grey tone is an inherent part of the pigment. The red in the tracery appears to be the same red as is in the line and the teardrop-shaped leaves, but the initials and calligraphy appear to be done in a different, dulled oarnge-red.

You can see the extensive crumpling in the vellum along the calligraphy guidelines; the red writing has chipped away in several places. This is a fairly decent Dutch hand, but note how, even in a book that must have once been a luxury manual, the writing has inconsistencies and so forth. Ruling lines appear to have been made with a lead or silver point.

Note that, while some traces of the gilding can still be seen in the tri-lobed leaves, most of it has worn away. What is not apparent in the scan is that no trace of the gilding base remains, either. The little teardrop leaves are, on this side, painted in red, green, blue: were I to imitate this with modern paints, I'd choose carmine, ultramarine, chromium oxide.

Recto

Here's the 800x1200 pixel picture, and here's the 433x582 pixel version. The smaller scan has been "magic matched" to a typical monitor, while the larger scan is as it came. Interestingly, I find that "magic match" is only useful for some computer set-ups; on some systems, it displays considerably lighter than it actually is. But I digress.

Here is a nice comparison of the red for the initials and the red for the illumination. I'd guess that these reds are one of kermes or carmine (the dark red tending toward blue) and red lead (the initial). This scan shows some clear flaking of the painted initial. The paint has fallen away from a large portion of the bow of the "d". In this area, one could see the thickness of the paint--at least .5 mm. While that doesn't sound like a lot, compare this to the rest of the illumination--the painting in the border leaves no noticeable raised effect on the page. Too, try getting a smooth buildup of .5mm thickness on your page in your own work. It takes a lot of paint.

You can also see that capital letters throughout the calligraphy have been touched with the same red as was used to paint the larger initials.

More initials; the decoration in blue letter "I" was created by leaving those areas unpainted. You'll also note that the line changes from blue to red in this detail; the line is divided into thirds and painted red-blue-red. Note the flaking damage in the gold. Either the gilding was laid on a nearly colorless base, or the gold has been damaged as a result of the base itself loosening and falling of the page. However, I suggest that both conditions are true.

You should be able to see that the tear-shaped leaves on this side, all green this time, are of both a light shade and a dark shade. This appears deliberate, although it could be some sort of color change over the centuries. As it happened in a very regular fashion to both sides of the leaf, I'd like to believe it is a deliberate choice on the part of some painter--it might have been the initial scribe, but may be that someone attempted to restore this leaf at some point, particularly as it is evident that the book was cut down for rebinding.

All in all, it was a very attractive leaf, and, as I said, I was sorry to return it. If I were to imitate this leaf, I would choose a palette of carmine, cad red light, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, sap green hue and chromium oxide. If you would like to check on its availability, contact Phillip Pirages at http://www.pirages.com. It was US$ 175 plus shipping.

NOTE: Since writing this article, the leaf has been resold to another book dealer and, from there, sold on eBay for aproximately US$265.

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