{"product_id":"large-album-compiled-william-charles-fewtrell-writing-h6n3daff","title":"A large album compiled by William Charles Fewtrell of the writing \u0026 notes of J. W. Bradley 'On Attavante \u0026 The Florentine School of Miniature', accompanied by numerous drawings, watercolours, photographs and cuttings.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA fascinating insight into late nineteenth-century medieval manuscript scholarship; a touching glimpse into an enthusiastic, turn-of-the-century amateur’s taste for medievalism; and an important witness to mid-twentieth-century biblioclasm.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of two albums compiled by amateur medievalist William Charles Fewtrell containing the late nineteenth-century notes, scholarship and exquisite inked drawings, watercolours and \u003cstrong\u003enotably early photographs\u003c\/strong\u003e of manuscript scholar John W. Bradley; with countless cuttings, chromolithographs, and facsimiles added by Fewtrell. Having once also contained fragments and cuttings of medieval manuscripts and miniatures - now dispersed - \u003cstrong\u003ethis is one of two albums previously thought lost, feared discarded, after their sale at auction in the middle of the twentieth century. It is a remarkable survival that offers countless avenues for further research.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Napoleonic campaigns of the early nineteenth century resulted in the emergence onto the market of manuscripts from religious institutions and libraries all over Continental Europe. This emergence went hand-in-hand with a renewed interest in the Middle Ages and its visual culture in particular although, as Rowan Watson notes, interest in those decorative elements was a slow burner; it took almost the full length of the nineteenth century for manuscripts to be appreciated for their ornament and illumination, and more than simply as predecessors of the printed book (Watson, p.82). This was in no small part thanks to developments in printing technologies, like chromolithography (see below) which allowed for their visual visual reproduction and popularisation; collectors could and would assemble cuttings in albums, like this one, ‘arranged according to their own inspiration or according to criteria of form, style and iconography’ or even for didactic purposes, like those assembled by John Ruskin for his students (who famously also retouched existing miniatures as well as reproducing them by hand). ‘Such assemblages in turn became \u003cem\u003enew\u003c\/em\u003e compositions, which had, in themselves, a cultural significance and history all of their own’ (Coomans, p.39).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe scholar and the amateur\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohn William Bradley (1830-1916), whose notes, photographs, pen-and-ink drawings and watercolours form the nucleus of this album, was a librarian, manuscript scholar and historian, author of several guides to manuscripts and miniatures - \u003cem\u003eA Dictionary of Miniaturists -\u003c\/em\u003e and studies of single illuminators - \u003cem\u003eThe Life and Works of Giorgio Giulio Clovio, Miniaturist\u003c\/em\u003e (Quaritch, 1891) - in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This volume contains 101pp., in Bradley’s own hand, and numbered by him (with later numbers added by the compiler, Fewtrell), of an extended study of miniaturist Attavante degli Attavanti (1452-1517) and the Florentine school of illumination, interspersed with Bradley’s exquisite, intricate pen and ink drawings - they look to be tracings - reproducing details from individual borders, miniatures and initials, as well as full leaves (see pp.36-37) from Attavante’s most sumptuous manuscripts. Those featured here include Philostratus’ Codex Heroica (Széchényi National Library, Bib. Lat. 417; when Bradley was writing, held at the Imperial Library, Vienna) and the Missale Romanum (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms. 9008), both from the Bibliotheca Corviniana; and Martianus Capella’s \u003cem\u003eDe nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii\u003c\/em\u003e illuminated by Attavante (Bibl. Marciana, lat. class. XIV. 35), also a Corvinus manuscript.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTowards the end of the volume are 17 smaller leaves, taken from what looks to have been an oblong notebook of Bradley’s, containing a further series of stunning ink and watercolour sketches of details of initials and borders; those extend to the surrounding, full-size leaves. The remaining contents of the album - engravings, bright chromolithograph facsimiles of miniatures and illuminations - are the additions of the album’s compiler, Fewtrell, himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLittle is known about him, though in his research into miniatures dispersed from this and other albums compiled by Fewtrell, Peter Kidd has identified a William Charles Fewtrell born in 1868 in Shropshire, and a William C. Fewtrell ‘who died in Liverpool, aged 92, at the end of 1959 or beginning of 1960…He is perhaps also the William Charles Fewtrell who was married at Eton in 1892, when he would have been aged about 24. The 1901 national census records him living in the Toxteth area of Liverpool, and the 1911 census shows that he had moved just a few hundred yards, into the adjacent Wavertree neighbourhood’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile comparatively scant biographical information remains of Fewtrell, he has included here a fulsome - and quite touching - description of the contents and conceit behind the compilation of this volume. In his own words:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Sometime in the early 1920s I bought from the catalogue of a London bookseller “a large collection contained in fourteen albums and folders of studies of French, Italian and Spanish Illuminated MSs formerly the property of the late J.W. Bradley BA by whom the collection was made”. Some of the albums were securely [bound] and these I retained intact, but the most interesting portion was loose or in scrapbooks the worse for wear, and resulted in two volumes being bound for me in half morocco, this volume by Speakman and the other (smaller) by Hodgson, both containing blank paper for additional matter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e…The holographic MSs here preserved, enriched as they are by innumerable sketches in line and colour, tracings and photographs form a valuable and personal link with an eminitent and gifted writer on mediaeval Art. The information and illustrations Mr Bradley obtained at first hand from precious MSs not readily accessible is valuable to all students and admirers of the work fo the great miniaturists of the Middle Ages. Although Mr Bradley’s material forms the nucleus of this book, the numerous cuttings from illuminated MSs, engravings and facsimiles in colour which I have added in succeeding years, \u003cstrong\u003ehave caused it to become the most costly book in my possession\u003c\/strong\u003e.“\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe other album(s)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlong with other books and reference works from Fewtrell’s collection, this album was sold together with the other one that Fewtrell mentions in his introduction - on French Renaissance illumination, also made up from Bradley’s notes - at Sotheby’s, 10 November, 1952, Lot 22, to bookdealer Francis Edwards. What happened to the full albums after this sale, however, is unclear; we have found no reference to the other album after this date, while the present made its way to the Maggs reference library at some point in the years after (interesting in itself, as Maggs were the underbidder at the Sotheby’s sale in 1952).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe material that constitutes this album, as Fewtrell explains, was “loose or in a scrapbook the worse for wear”, part of a job lot of Bradley material that he purchased at auction in the early 1920s. Along with the notes and illustrations in the same condition that formed the core of the other album, above, Fewtrell mentions fourteen further albums and folders of Bradley’s research material. The Grolier Club in New York holds six albums of Bradley’s notes (described thus: “Illuminated manuscripts: an extensive collection of reproductions, tracings, photographs and plates of illuminated manuscripts, compiled ca. 1873-1910”, RLIN ID No. NYGG01-A12), also seemingly compiled, or at least with some intervention from Fewtrell at a later date (see Peter Kidd, Medieval Manuscripts Provenance blog, ‘Manuscripts from the Collection of W. Charles Fewtrell’, URL below). One of these may be the companion album above; either way, these are the only comparable records that we have been able to identify.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEarly photography\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt pp.77-79 (Fewtrell’s numbering) is an index in Italian in Bradley’s hand signed ‘Giov. Gugl. Bradley’, of miniatures in the Marziano Capella manuscript, a list for the photographer of the photos Bradley would like to be taken at the Marciana Library in Venice, where the manuscript was, and still is, housed (‘Indice dei Facsimile in fotografia delle miniature tenute nel codice della Marciana Marziano Capella’). It is followed by a copy in the photographer, Signor Perini’s hand, of the same list with Bradley’s note at the foot: ‘See above the handwriting of Signor Perini, who photographed the Martianus Capella for me in 1874.’ Interleaved and pasted alongside Bradley’s notes and drawings in the first half of the volume are photographic albumen prints from the Capella manuscript, as well as further albumen prints - presumably copies provided by the holding institutions - of the Philostratus and others. A later note on the verso of one mounted image records an omission by Perini from the list (see p.93, Fewtrell’s numbering).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Signor Perini’ is \u003cstrong\u003eAntonio Perini (1830-1879), an innovative early pioneer of Italian photography.\u003c\/strong\u003e Alongside his studio portrait practice, Perini appears to have been one of very few specialising in photographing medieval manuscripts in the late nineteenth century, and as Fewtrell notes in 1862 had published a series of more than 100 photos of the Grimani Breviary also at the Marciana Library in Venice (presumably his contacts there after that project might have allowed him access 12 years later, on Bradley’s behalf). The Grimani Breviary photos \u003cstrong\u003ewere one of the first photographic facsimiles of a manuscript\u003c\/strong\u003e (Coomans, p.42).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile “photography’s participation in 19th-century medieval revival” (Fuchs) is well-documented, the reproduction of medieval manuscripts at first took place using chromolithography and other non-photographic methods of illustration (for example Owen Jones, Henry Noel Humphreys); there is an interesting juxtaposition here of different forms of reproduction - copies by hand, chromolithography, and photography. We have found no record of earlier photographs of \u003cem\u003eDe nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii;\u003c\/em\u003e it is therefore very possible that the albumen prints in this album are the \u003cstrong\u003eearliest extant photographs of this manuscript.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe albumen printing process - popular and widely used at this point in the nineteenth century - was perfect for a commission like Bradley’s, as it loaned itself to capturing detail. Even so, to take these photos in situ and then to print them would have been a fiddly and laborious - and presumably for Bradley, very expensive - undertaking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMedieval fragments and cuttings\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his introduction, Fewtrell describes there being ‘about 100 cuttings from mediaeval MSs, some of great beauty and others of coarser execution, but together they show examples of many styles of the XIV, XV and XVI centuries.’ He offers some justification for their removal from their original codices and inclusion here, which is reminiscent of Otto Ege’s (in)famous 1938 essay, ‘I am a Biblioclast’ (though Fewtrell does not appear to have broken the manuscripts himself):\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Deplorable as is the mutilation of MSs by thieves or fanatics, the profanation has been done, and sometimes through the negligence, or even with the connivance of custodians who should have known better. I have known book-lovers refuse to handle these fragments on the plea of not encouraging the practice, but I prefer that that [sic[ they should fall into appreciative hands rather than be exposed to further risks. In some cases the despoilers may unwittingly have been the means of preserving leaves of MSs which have totally disappeared in fires, enemy raids, and even sometimes through well meant but hasty efforts to secure their safety.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFewtrell goes on to provide a partial list of the manuscript cuttings included in the volume. Given his sentiments above, there is a sad irony to the fact that none of those listed are still present here. Indeed by the time this album and its companion came up at auction in 1952, the leaves and fragments were numbered simply at “over eighty” which, if not a miscount or an estimate, might suggest that Fewtrell had already removed some. In any event the sale - by Maggs and other dealers - of individual manuscript leaves that are traceable to Fewtrell, \u003cstrong\u003eand in some cases to this very album\u003c\/strong\u003e, started to take place within just a few years of the Sotheby’s sale; the stubs still visible here bear witness to a prevailing attitude amongst collectors and the book trade in the early twentieth century (and prior), towards manuscript breaking that has thankfully much changed in the intervening decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile some of the leaves that Fewtrell describes are difficult to identify - ‘fifteen leaves from a manuscript finely written in a small gothic hand’ - \u003cstrong\u003eit has been possible to identify several of the illuminations he describes, in a way that demonstrates the great potential held by this album for further manuscript provenance research.\u003c\/strong\u003e Of the two, thus far, that we have identified, the first Fewtrell describes thus: “From a XV century French Horae comes an illuminated leaf with a good miniature of the Flight into Egypt. The Blessed Virgin nursing the Child, is seated upon an ass led by Joseph through a hilly country. Behind them a countryman is attacked by a man in armour, and in the distance is a battlemented castle under a blue sky studded with golden stars…”. This leaf is DPL Reed MMF19 at Dunedin Library, New Zealand - purchased, as Peter Kidd writes, from H.G. Commin, formerly Alan Thomas’ business, cat. 149 (1959) no. 117 (see MMP blog, ‘A Dispersed Album of Illuminated Cuttings [II]’, with photo of this leaf). Another cutting, this one a historiated initial, is described by Fewtrell thus: “A large initial S, also blue, has a well drawn miniature which shows several persons among a herd in an enclosed pen or barn; snow is falling heavily, and the upper half of a door or shutter is open and reveals a landscape, with an elderly man hastening to meet a youth who is raising his cap in salute. This might represent scenes from the Parable of the Prodigal Son’. This fragment is currently for sale at Maggs, after many years in a private collection, and has since been identified as the Destruction of Job’s Household. Peter Kidd’s extensive research into other leaves and fragments owned by Fewtrell that have come up on the market, or are now in private and institutional collections show them to have a distinctive, calligraphic title and reference, that may assist with the identification of further leaves from his collection, and Fewtrell himself, elsewhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSlight grubbiness to foreedges of leaves, some minor fraying, stubs and remnants of glue from later removals, but in otherwise very good condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Fewtrell’s albums, and the dispersal of miniatures from them, see Peter Kidd’s entries on his MSs Provenance blog: ‘A Dispersed Album of Illuminated Cuttings’, (\u003ca rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/mssprovenance.blogspot.com\/2020\/03\/a-dispersed-album-of-illuminated.html);\"\u003ehttps:\/\/mssprovenance.blogspot.com\/2020\/03\/a-dispersed-album-of-illuminated.html);\u003c\/a\u003e ‘A Dispersed Album of Illuminated Cuttings [II]: The Collector(s) Identified’ (\u003ca rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/mssprovenance.blogspot.com\/2020\/06\/a-dispersed-album-of-illuminated.html);\"\u003ehttps:\/\/mssprovenance.blogspot.com\/2020\/06\/a-dispersed-album-of-illuminated.html);\u003c\/a\u003e ‘Manuscripts from the Collection of W. Charles Fewtrell’ (\u003ca rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/mssprovenance.blogspot.com\/2022\/08\/manuscripts-from-collection-of-w.html\"\u003ehttps:\/\/mssprovenance.blogspot.com\/2022\/08\/manuscripts-from-collection-of-w.html\u003c\/a\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the six Fewtrell\/Bradley albums held at the Grolier Club Library, see: \u003ca rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grolierclub.org\/default.aspx?p=v35ListDocument\u0026amp;amp;ID=755370874\u0026amp;amp;listid=11461\u0026amp;amp;listitemid=122566\u0026amp;amp;ssid=322536\u0026amp;amp;dpageid=\u0026amp;amp;listname=\"\u003ehttps:\/\/www.grolierclub.org\/default.aspx?p=v35ListDocument\u0026amp;amp;ID=755370874\u0026amp;amp;listid=11461\u0026amp;amp;listitemid=122566\u0026amp;amp;ssid=322536\u0026amp;amp;dpageid=\u0026amp;amp;listname=\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eT. Coomans, ‘Manuscrits, livres d’or, chartes et autres adresses’, in T. Coomans \u0026amp; J. de Maeyer (des), \u003cem\u003eThe Revival of Medieval Illumination\u003c\/em\u003e (Leuven, 2007), pp.37-62.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67730446680373,"sku":"264084","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0669\/0045\/9677\/files\/DSC_8784-Edit.jpg?v=1792160178","url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/large-album-compiled-william-charles-fewtrell-writing-h6n3daff","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}