Border for Ercole d'Este and Boccaccio's Famous Women, 1849
€ 260
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1849
Mapmaker / artist
A. Rivaud and A. Ledoux (draughtsmen), Kellerhoven (lithographer)
Publisher
Administration, 5 rue du Pont-de-Lodi, Paris (chromolithographed by Lemercier, Paris)
Technique
Chromolithograph
Coloring
Printed color
Sheet size
28 × 21 cm (11.0 × 8.3 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-12228-2-37
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.
About this sheet
A full Renaissance border of the Ferrarese kind, white vine scroll and blue and pink flowers studded with gold bosses, enclosing a miniature of men fighting with staves in a walled garden, with the arms of the house of Este in a laurel wreath at the foot. The sheet is lettered as the border of a book executed for Ercole d'Este, from a manuscript then belonging to the Baron d'Hervey de Saint Denys, together with a miniature from the Famous Women of Boccaccio in the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal.
The plate belongs to the second volume of Lacroix and Sere's Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, Paris, 1849, a work that set out to describe the manners, trades, sciences, letters and fine arts of Europe between the fall of Rome and the end of the sixteenth century. Each sheet was drawn from the original object or manuscript and printed in chromolithography, a process still new in 1849 and here used with unusual richness.
Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, was among the greatest book patrons of fifteenth century Italy and his arms on a page are a mark of the highest quality of Italian illumination. The border is complete on all four sides, which is what a decorator wants, and the sheet works as well in a Renaissance interior as beside a modern painting.
Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
