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A Fantastic Poetic Medley Illuminated Manuscript by Sangorski.

In an Elaborate Jeweled Binding.

Sixteen leaves, including two blank leaves at front and three at end. Interleaved with silk. Written in red and black ink, with some titles in gold.

Illuminated general title, illuminated titles to two poems ("Truth by Geoffrey Chaucer" on page 3, with a miniature portrait of Chaucer, and "If Love Make Me Forsworn by William Shakespeare" on page 9, with an oval miniature portrait of Shakespeare), two full-page miniatures within full illuminated borders (of Love personified in female form accompanied by two putti on page 10 and of Diana and Endymion on page 19), and five smaller miniatures, including one oval portrait (on page 14) and four vignette views (on pages 8, 12, 13, and 17), all framed with burnished gold.

All miniatures initialed by Alberto Sangorski and all (but one) dated 1922.

Four leaves with full illuminated borders incorporating large initials, ten large illuminated initials in gold and colors, other initials in gold, red, and blue, some with contrasting tracery.

Colophon

This manuscript / Gems from the Poets / include [sic] the following poems / Truth by Geoffrey Chaucer. / Invocation to Sleep [by] Sir Philip Sidney. / If Love make me forsworn [by] William Shakespeare. / May Morning [by] John Milton. / How soft the music of those / Village Bells [by] William Cowper. / A Perfect Woman [by] William Wordsworth. / Endymion. [By] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. / was designed, written out, and illuminated by / Alberto Sangorski / This manuscript will not be duplicated. [Signed:] Alberto Sangorski.

Provenance

Purchased from Alberto Sangorski by Coates & Bairstow on 2 March 1923, with original invoice laid in ("To Coates & Bairstow, Booksellers and Stationers" for £320.) Also laid in is a note on Oxford University Press letterhead: "Illuminated MS by Sangorski 'Gems from the Poets' on vellum / containing - / Truth by Chaucer with portrait / Invocation to Sleep by Sir Philip Sydney / If Love make me forsworn by Shakespeare / with portrait / May Morning by Milton / How soft the music of those Village Bells / by Cowper / A Perfect Woman by Wordsworth / Endymion by Longfellow. / Five Nine Miniatures, two Portraits, / two full page pictures. / Bound at Oxford bindery in blue crushed levant morocco. / Richly tooled upper side decorated with 20 amethysts + 16 Rubies / The Volume enclosed in morocco case."
Exhibited at the Wembley Exhibition in 1924.
Heritage Book Shop, Inc.
Private collection, Beverly Hills, California