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Lot Essay
Early German engravings such as the present two examples were used as illustrations for manuscript prayer books. As such, they were stuck onto the pages of a manuscript and coloured by hand. It is therefore very unusual to find examples with such wide margins and without any handcolouring.
Lehrs attributed this engraving to the "School of the Master of the Playing Cards". Such attributions to various unknown masters and schools are still in dispute. The dating of this print, however, is less problematic: a hand-drawn copy of this print belonging to a manuscript dated 1449 is kept in the Germanische Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg (Hz. 374; Hs. 28441). Further impressions of this print are in the Germanische Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, and in the Albertina, Vienna. The example in Munich is in a manuscript dated 1454. The handcoloured impression in Vienna is discussed and illustrated in Peter Schmidt, Gedruckte Bilder in handgeschriebenen Büchern, Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, 2003, p. 451/2, plate 233/4.
Lehrs attributed this engraving to the "School of the Master of the Playing Cards". Such attributions to various unknown masters and schools are still in dispute. The dating of this print, however, is less problematic: a hand-drawn copy of this print belonging to a manuscript dated 1449 is kept in the Germanische Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg (Hz. 374; Hs. 28441). Further impressions of this print are in the Germanische Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, and in the Albertina, Vienna. The example in Munich is in a manuscript dated 1454. The handcoloured impression in Vienna is discussed and illustrated in Peter Schmidt, Gedruckte Bilder in handgeschriebenen Büchern, Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, 2003, p. 451/2, plate 233/4.