Celtic Interlace Manuscript Page, Brussels, Antique Print, 1849

An evangelist in a green robe writing at a lectern, set inside a frame of orange and white interlace that knots itself into bird heads at the corners, with a dove descending at the top. A band of black and white plaitwork runs along the foot. The sheet is lettered simply as an extract from a manuscript of the Library of Burgundy at Brussels. The interlace is insular in character, the kind of knotwork that traveled from Ireland into the Rhineland with Irish missionaries.

This is one of the chromolithographic plates of Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, second volume, Paris, 1849, edited by Paul Lacroix with Ferdinand Sere as artistic director. The work was among the first large French publications to rely on color lithography throughout, and its plates were drawn directly from manuscripts, textiles, armor and goldsmiths' work in the public collections of Paris, Brussels and the German cities.

Knotwork of this sort has a market of its own, quite separate from the medieval manuscript trade, and the sheet sells to buyers who want Celtic ornament rather than Carolingian painting. The symmetry of the frame makes it one of the easiest plates in the volume to hang, and it looks well in a pale room where the orange can carry.

Even age toning. Slight wear at the top left corner.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.