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INGLIS, Esther (1571 - 1624). Vne estreine pour tres illustre et vertueuse dame la Contesse de Bedford, ILLUMINATED CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[London], 1 January 1606
81 x 105 mm. 23 leaves, written on the recto only in a variety of calligraphic scripts, title-page with a border of coloured flowers and insects on an ochre ground, 20 text pages each with a single coloured flower or spray of flowers at the top, often accompanied by an insect or a bird, each text page with a double blue rule at the foot, the final leaf with an emblem of two liquid-gold pens crossed within a wreath surmounted by a crown and flanked by the motto 'nil penna sed usus'. Contemporary English calf, the sides gilt-tooled with a border of alternating pinks and pansies, each within a leafy roundel, surrounding a rectangular central panel with a blank oval centrepiece, leafy sprays and small floral tools, gilt spine, gilt edges, evidence of two pairs of ties (skilful repairs to joints and head and tail of spine). Modern russet morocco pull-off case.
PROVENANCE:
1. Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford (d. 1627), wife of Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford: dedication to her on title page and f.2 2. John Haywhite, 1679: signature and date, f.22v
3. Christie's, 22 July 1964, lot 259
4. Martin Breslauer, cat. 99, no 97
5. Harry Levinson, 1965
6. Edwin P. Rome, 1966
A FINE FRESH EXAMPLE OF THE SMALL CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUMS MADE BY ESTHER INGLIS FOR PRESENTATION TO POTENTIAL PATRONS. The finest calligrapher of her day, Esther Inglis was probably trained by her father, a Hugenot refugee and a teacher of French and handwriting in Edinburgh. Her husband, Bartholomew Kello, whom she married c.1596, seems to have carried out special missions for King James and later held livings in Essex and Suffolk. Throughout her life Inglis lived in straitened circumstances and many of her manuscripts, such as this one, were evidently written in the hope of attracting patronage. The Countess of Bedford, a patroness of poets, was praised by John Donne, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman, among others. It is not known whether the presentation of this manuscript elicited any reward.
Most of the 55 Inglis manuscripts recorded in the recent census by Scott-Elliot and Yeo were signed and dated by the calligrapher, the date probably referring to the date of presentation. The present book includes the statment 'Escript par moy Esther Inglis' on the title-page, and is also signed 'ESTHER INGLIS' on the dedication page (f.2). The dedicatory poem, which includes the verses 'Vous suppliant de recevoir en gre l'oeuvre petit qui vous est consacre /Avec ces mien versets', is one of relatively few texts that can be attributed without question to Inglis as author. The body of this manuscript, in French, consists of passages from the book of Proverbs, taken from a Geneva translation of the Bible. Such texts were favourites of Inglis, who used quotations, extracts or verse summaries of Proverbs or Psalms in no fewer than 26 of her books.
The flowers and insects that ornament this manuscript resemble those found in the borders of 15th-century Flemish Books of Hours. Many of the flowers used by Inglis can be traced to models in printed books, but those found in the present manuscript do not correspond to the ones she used elsewhere. They are also more delicate in execution and more in keeping with the scale of the text than those in some other manuscripts. The device on the last page, copied from J. Houthusius, Exemplaria sive formulae scripturae ornatioris XXXVI (Aachen 1591), occurs, with some variation, in six other manuscripts (Scott-Elliot & Yeo 21-27). The motto is one Inglis used from 1596 to 1606. The binding of this book belongs to a group of seven similar bindings (Scott-Elliot & Yeo, p.22) that are attributed to a period when Inglis lived in London. It is possible that she herself was the binder.
A.H. Scott-Elliot and Elspeth Yeo, 'Calligraphic Manuscripts of Esther Inglis (1571-1624): A Catalogue', in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 84, 1990, pp.11-86, no 22 (with reproduction of the title-page)
[London], 1 January 1606
81 x 105 mm. 23 leaves, written on the recto only in a variety of calligraphic scripts, title-page with a border of coloured flowers and insects on an ochre ground, 20 text pages each with a single coloured flower or spray of flowers at the top, often accompanied by an insect or a bird, each text page with a double blue rule at the foot, the final leaf with an emblem of two liquid-gold pens crossed within a wreath surmounted by a crown and flanked by the motto 'nil penna sed usus'. Contemporary English calf, the sides gilt-tooled with a border of alternating pinks and pansies, each within a leafy roundel, surrounding a rectangular central panel with a blank oval centrepiece, leafy sprays and small floral tools, gilt spine, gilt edges, evidence of two pairs of ties (skilful repairs to joints and head and tail of spine). Modern russet morocco pull-off case.
PROVENANCE:
1. Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford (d. 1627), wife of Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford: dedication to her on title page and f.2 2. John Haywhite, 1679: signature and date, f.22v
3. Christie's, 22 July 1964, lot 259
4. Martin Breslauer, cat. 99, no 97
5. Harry Levinson, 1965
6. Edwin P. Rome, 1966
A FINE FRESH EXAMPLE OF THE SMALL CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUMS MADE BY ESTHER INGLIS FOR PRESENTATION TO POTENTIAL PATRONS. The finest calligrapher of her day, Esther Inglis was probably trained by her father, a Hugenot refugee and a teacher of French and handwriting in Edinburgh. Her husband, Bartholomew Kello, whom she married c.1596, seems to have carried out special missions for King James and later held livings in Essex and Suffolk. Throughout her life Inglis lived in straitened circumstances and many of her manuscripts, such as this one, were evidently written in the hope of attracting patronage. The Countess of Bedford, a patroness of poets, was praised by John Donne, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman, among others. It is not known whether the presentation of this manuscript elicited any reward.
Most of the 55 Inglis manuscripts recorded in the recent census by Scott-Elliot and Yeo were signed and dated by the calligrapher, the date probably referring to the date of presentation. The present book includes the statment 'Escript par moy Esther Inglis' on the title-page, and is also signed 'ESTHER INGLIS' on the dedication page (f.2). The dedicatory poem, which includes the verses 'Vous suppliant de recevoir en gre l'oeuvre petit qui vous est consacre /Avec ces mien versets', is one of relatively few texts that can be attributed without question to Inglis as author. The body of this manuscript, in French, consists of passages from the book of Proverbs, taken from a Geneva translation of the Bible. Such texts were favourites of Inglis, who used quotations, extracts or verse summaries of Proverbs or Psalms in no fewer than 26 of her books.
The flowers and insects that ornament this manuscript resemble those found in the borders of 15th-century Flemish Books of Hours. Many of the flowers used by Inglis can be traced to models in printed books, but those found in the present manuscript do not correspond to the ones she used elsewhere. They are also more delicate in execution and more in keeping with the scale of the text than those in some other manuscripts. The device on the last page, copied from J. Houthusius, Exemplaria sive formulae scripturae ornatioris XXXVI (Aachen 1591), occurs, with some variation, in six other manuscripts (Scott-Elliot & Yeo 21-27). The motto is one Inglis used from 1596 to 1606. The binding of this book belongs to a group of seven similar bindings (Scott-Elliot & Yeo, p.22) that are attributed to a period when Inglis lived in London. It is possible that she herself was the binder.
A.H. Scott-Elliot and Elspeth Yeo, 'Calligraphic Manuscripts of Esther Inglis (1571-1624): A Catalogue', in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 84, 1990, pp.11-86, no 22 (with reproduction of the title-page)