2
ARCHBISHOP PARKER'S GIFT
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE BRITISH COLLECTION, LOTS 1 – 15
ARCHBISHOP MATTHEW PARKER
PRESENTATION MANUSCRIPT FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH
in the form of nine conjoined vellum roundels (each c.
40mm
diameter) in three rows, linked by thin strips of vellum (total
size 127 x 127mm), the middle centre roundel illuminated
in blue and gold with a finely illustrated St George and the
Dragon on a dark blue background surrounded by a Garter with
motto, and with surrounding Latin text on the presentation
of an agate jewel by Archbishop Matthew Parker to Queen
Elizabeth I (“Regni axos Elizabetha gerit Mattheus Achaten
Cantuar.
Ei donat fidus dum vivet Achates”), the bottom
centre roundel with a small miniature portrait of Queen
Elizabeth in blue, surrounded by three Latin sententiae, the
top row with a definition of agate in French derived from Pliny
with headings in gold ink, the remaining roundels with Latin
texts on the properties of agate and related subjects derived
from Pliny and other Classical sources, the texts in three fine
calligraphic hands, [September 1573], mounted on a square
of velvet covered board, with a printed exhibition label (“Tudor
Exhibition, London.
1889-90. Reg
EXHIBITED
London, Tudor Exhibition.
No 49”) on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504-1575); by whom gifted
to Elizabeth I (1533-1603); possibly acquired John Sharp,
Archbishop of York (1645-1714); thence by family descent,
certainly to Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1807-1886); thence
by family descent to the present owners.
1889-90 Reg.
No 49
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, on long-term loan
# £ 5,000-10,000
Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right
14
(which will depend on the individual circumstances).
Refer to the Buying at Auction and VAT sections at the back of this catalogue for further information.
A BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH I FROM HER
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
This manuscript is an exceptionally rare relic of the summer
progresses that were such a distinctive feature of the pageantry
of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
On 7 September, her 40th
birthday, the Queen was in Canterbury as part of her progress
through Kent, where she was invited to a lavish banquet at the
Archbishop’s Palace.
Her host was Archbishop Matthew Parker
(1504-1575), a principal architect of the Elizabethan church
settlement and the greatest collector of Medieval manuscripts
of his generation, and the assembled guests- including the grea
nobles of the court as well as the French ambassador with
retinue of 100 gentlemen- filled the hal
Archbishop Parker also
presented his Queen with a particularly magnificent gift, lovingly
described in his own account of proceedings:
“a salt cellar made of gold, into the cover of which was inset a
jewel, an agate, containing St George killing the dragon, along
with verses in French upon the customary royal insignia; in
the curved section or hollow of this was enclosed another
agate, incised into which was a true likeness of the Queen on
white agate.
On the top of its cover, a small golden boat held
a rectangular diamond.”
(Matthew Parker, annotated copy of
De Antiquitate Britanniae Ecclesia, trans.
The salt incorporated exactly the same agates as are illustrated
in this manuscript, and indeed this manuscript is presumably
the “verses in French” that were inset into its cover.
in John Nichols’s The
Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth I: A New
Edition of the Early Modern Sources (2014))
The unusual
shape of this manuscript strongly suggests that it was originally
folded to create a single disc of just over 40mm diameter.
Although it was probably incorporated into the long-lost salt, the
manuscript has long been associated with a turned ivory box (lot
3) into which it could have been fitted, and which may also have
formed part of this magnificent gift to the Queen.
The manuscript
has historically been associated with an intaglio of Venus at the
Forge of Vulcan (lot 1) but the identification of that intaglio with
Matthew Parker’s gift to Queen Elizabeth I is almost certainly
mistaken (see Albert Way, ‘Notice of a Jeweled Ornament
Presented to Queen Elizabeth by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of
Canterbury’, The Archaeological Journal, vol 19 (1862), 145-58).
The manuscript itself is typical of gifts to the Queen.
The use
of multiple languages is a compliment to her linguistic abilities,
whilst the Classical pun on Achates- both the Latin for agat
and the name of Aeneas’s most faithful friend- and referenc
s to Pliny are acknowledgements of her learnin
The use of
different calligraphic scripts for different languages is found in
other manuscripts presented to the Queen on progresses or as
New Year gifts.