Property of The Berger Collection Educational Trust, Sold to Benefit Future Philanthropy. The Bute Book of Hours, c.1500-20. Estimate £1.5 - 2.5 million. Photo: Sotheby's.

LONDON.- The Bute Hours, one of the most extraordinary Medieval English Book of Hours in existence, is to be auctioned at Sotheby’s London on 6 December 2016, with an estimate of £1.5 to 2.5 million, making it one of the most valuable English books to appear at auction. The manuscript comes to sale from The Berger Collection Educational Trust, set up by the Denver-based collectors William M. B. Berger and Bernadette Berger, who amassed one of the most important collections of British Art in America, spanning over 600 years. The proceeds will go to benefit future philanthropy. 

English Books of Hours are extremely rare on the market, and the richness of the illustration of this particular manuscript is unparalleled - a reflection of the significant social status of its patron. Including more than 50 large miniatures, it was most likely made for a nobleman of the royal household who is depicted with a double chain of office, his wife, children, and dogs, throughout the book. In fact, the book is so lavish that it’s even been suggested that it was made the young prince Henry (the future Henry VIII).  

The book dates from c. 1500-20 – a time when plague swept across London. An image of St Roche (the patron saint against the plague) appears in prime position at the front of the book, immediately after the Trinity, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. The Welsh healing saint, St Armel, loved by Henry VII, is also invoked so that the user ‘shal be relesyd of all maner of sikenesse & soris’. The Plague broke out in London twice at the end of the Middle Ages, in 1499-1500 and again in 1537-9; the latter is too late for this Book of Hours but the earlier date seems possible. 

The manuscript takes its modern name from the Marquesses of Bute, whose ancestral home is on the Isle of Bute, off the west coast of Scotland. The family traces its ancestry back to the 12th century, and is descended from Kings of both Scotland and the United Kingdom. The manuscript was acquired for the Bute library by John Crichton-Stuart, 5th Marquess of Bute, who died in 1956; it passed with the title and properties (including six castles and an important art collection) to his eldest son John Crichton-Stuart. In 1983, he sold a number of illuminated manuscripts at Sotheby's, including the Bute Hours.  

This is the 5th time the manuscript will be sold in Sotheby’s rooms in its 500 year history. In 1860 it sold for £84; in 1910 it sold for £580 and in 1983 it sold for £154,000. Today the estimate is £1.5-2.5 million.  

The Berger Collection Educational Trust, Sold to Benefit Future Philanthropy 

The Bute Hours comes to sale from the Berger Collection Educational Trust, sold to benefit future philanthropy. Both natives of Denver, William M. B. Berger and Bernadette Berger began their collecting activities in the 1990s with a passion that has rarely been matched. Over the course of just a few years, they amassed one of the most important collections of British Art in America, spanning over 600 years, as well as excellent examples of French, Italian and American paintings and drawings. The Bergers were dedicated to using art as a vehicle for education: “We have always believed that art, as well as music, poetry, and literature, refreshes and enriches our lives”, they said. In order to further their mission, they founded the Berger Collection Educational Trust. 

The Trust’s mission focuses on British Art, culture and history, and uses the collection that the Bergers created to further its goals. It has sponsored numerous exhibitions throughout the United States devoted to British painting, as well as being a major supporter of the British Art Journal. The Trust administers, together with the Journal, the highly prestigious William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History, awarded for excellence in the field. In addition to the Bute Hours, a number of properties from The Berger Collection Educational Trust, will be sold at Sotheby’s New York & London in 2016 and 2017 to benefit future philanthropy.

Dr. John Wilson, Trustee, The Berger Collection Educational Trust, commented: “Bill and Bernadette Berger established the Berger Collection Educational Trust to demonstrate the role of British culture in influencing the Western Cultural Tradition in general, and American culture in particular. Their wide-ranging tastes and interests created a collection that allowed visitors to come face-to-face not only with significant paintings and works on paper, but also manuscripts, royal seals and important early books. Since its inception, the Trust has driven and supported educational activities promoting the history of British art, including programs at the Denver Art Museum and the Portland Museum of Art, and raised funds to further the mission of the Collection. The works on offer at Sotheby’s, many of which fall outside the British sphere, will be sold to further this mission.”

Dr. Mara Hoffmann, Sotheby’s Senior Specialist in Western Manuscripts, takes a look at some of the most exciting miniatures in The Bute Hours: 

This miniature shows King Henry VI of England as a Saint, adored by the man for whom the book was made. King Henry VI (reig.1422-1461 and 1470-71) died in the Tower of London in 1471, possibly killed on the orders of Edward IV (reig.1461-70 and 1471-83). Miracles were attributed to Henry VI after his death, and he was informally regarded as a saint and martyr. In 1484 the bodily remains of Henry VI were relocated to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where the tomb of Henry VI became the object of veneration and attracted many pilgrims. Henry VII (reig.1485-1509) promoted the royal cult especially during the proceedings for his canonisation from 1495. Henry VIII (reig.1509-47) venerated his great-uncle until the day he died, but diplomatic problems with Rome blocked the canonisation. Although depicted as a Saint, Henry VI was never officially a Saint.

In medieval England devotion to St Thomas Becket was widespread, and his shrine in Canterbury Cathedral was visited by countless pilgrims from all across Europe. Books of Hours made for the English market almost always include references to St Thomas of Canterbury. Following the suppression of the saint’s cult by King Henry VIII in 1538, the destruction of Becket imagery was widespread. Erasure, removal, or striking out references to St Thomas of Canterbury in English medieval manuscripts is fairly common, and indeed the manuscript lacks the miniature for the office of Thomas Becket. A second miniature with the image of Thomas Becket, included within a highly personalised selection of saints towards the end of the volume, escaped, however, the censor’s attention and survives unscathed. 

The manuscript was made for the man who appears here with his wife, their children and their dogs. The man is wearing a double chain of office, and the book has a strong royalist bias. Most remarkable is the office and miniature for King Henry VI, who is shown as a saint with the owner of the manuscript kneeling next to him in the margin. The implication is that the present book may have been for a nobleman of the royal household. The family portrait, the royal connection and the exceptionally rich and lavish decoration of the manuscript lead to belief in the 19th century that the manuscript was made for the young prince Henry (1491-1547), afterwards Henry VIII, who would have been depicted with his parents Henry VII (1457-1509) and Elizabeth of York (1466-1503), and his three siblings who survived infancy, his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486-1502), and his sisters Margaret (1489-1541) and Mary (1496-1533). 

Several entries in this manuscript hint at a time of plague. St Roche, patron saint against the plague, appears right at the beginning, second only to the Trinity, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. St Armel, the Welsh saint whose fest was adopted into the Sarum Calendar only in 1498, is invoked so that the user ‘shal be relesyd of all maner of sikenesse & soris’. The Plague broke out in London twice at the end of the Middle Ages, in 1499-1500 and again in 1537-9; the latter is too late for this Book of Hours but the earlier date seems possible. The sickness was so rampant that Henry VII retired to Calais with members of the court, and there is a possibility that the present book was made then as a votive offering by a member of the royal retinue.