A leaf from one of the earliest Flemish Books of Hours, long associated with John III Ghistelles (d.1315), Lord of Ghistelles and Ingelmunster.

Various leaves from the already fragmentary manuscript, identified by Rosy Schilling as having once belonged to Sir Sydney Cockerell, were sold by or through Heinrich Eisemann in the 1950s and are now dispersed in public and private collections (see C. de Hamel in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, pp.91-2; Sotheby's, 1 December 1998, lots 17-19. The first leaf of the Hours of the Virgin was sold at Christie's, 4 June 2003, lot 5).

Provenance:
One leaf from the parent manuscript features heraldic banners of a Flemish family, gules, a chevron ermine, and of Flanders, or a lion sable. This has been associated with Jan III, heer van Gistel, or John III Ghistelles (d.1315), Lord of Ghistelles. Recently, Peter Kidd has made an argument for reattribution: of all the known leaves of the 'Ghistelles Hours', only one has the arms of Ghistelles and Flanders. They are not placed at a major textual division, as one might expect if they were intended to signal the identity of the patron of the manuscript. Indeed, the leaf opening the Hours of the Virgin features jousting monkeys bearing a shield that is or two chevrons gules. Kidd argues that these are not indicative of original ownership, and that it is more plausible that the patron of the manuscript might have been someone whose business was transacted at the fairs listed in French in one of the surviving leaves. See Medieval Manuscripts Provenance.

Physical description:
117 x 80mm (4½ x 3¼ in.), written space: 63 x 46mm (2½ x 1⅞ in.), with a three-sided bar border with lion and bird-headed terminals, a two-line initial with a tonsured grotesque in the infill and a marginal figure of a long-legged man playing bagpipes, signature kiii in red at bottom right corner, the verso with 11 lines of text in black ink. The initial opens the 4th of the 9 lessons in Matins of the Office of the Dead.

Please note this lot is the property of a private consignor.