[BRITISH ARMOUR - TOWER OF LONDON - DUTCH MANUSCRIPT].
Beschrijving van de paarden wapenzaal in de Tower te London.
[The Netherlands, second quarter of the 19th century]. Ca. 21.5 x 17 cm. With 12 large, colourful ink drawings of knights on horseback, depicting various British kings and nobles, and a smaller ink drawing of knights in battle on the title-page. Contemporary green paper, over brown cloth, with a calligraphed title on the front in a baroque style floral frame, and a drawing of a knight on horseback on the back board within the same floral frame, blue speckled edges. [1], [1 blank], 105 pp.
€ 3,500
Remarkable manuscript with beautiful illustrations and descriptions of the displays in the Royal Armouries in the Tower of London. As the armoury was engulfed by a large fire in 1841, the largest in the history of the Tower of London, some of the depicted armour has been destroyed, making the present manuscript a unique source on these objects.
The work shows the armour of various British kings and nobles, including that of Kings Edward I and VI, Henry VI, VII and VIII, James II and V, and military officer Horace Vere. They are all on horseback, which is how the armour was displayed in the Tower of London at the time. The illustrations are beautifully hand coloured, which gives a good impression of how the armour must have looked. The included text describes the objects and gives extensive background information on the kings and nobles they belonged to.
The Royal Armouries in the Tower of London is one of the oldest museum exhibitions in the world. One of the earliest recorded visitors was in 1498, when entry was only by special permission. The visitors in the 16th century who wrote about their experience, often called the display "disorderly", suggesting that little attention was paid to presentation at this time. This changed when the Stuarts reclaimed the throne in 1660. Two permanent, public displays were set up, to encourage visitors to marvel at the splendour of the British monarchy. One of the displays was called "The Line of Kings", which placed figures wearing the armour of former British kings on life-sized wooden horses. In 1825, The Line of Kings was relocated into a new building against the south side of the White Tower, where it stayed until the fire of 1841. The present manuscript describes this display during this time period.
The edges, corners and hinges of the boards are somewhat scuffed, with some loss of paper on the spine, showing the brown cloth underneath. With very mild foxing on some of the leaves. Otherwise in good condition. Cf. Nederlandsch magazijn, ter verspreiding van algemeene en nuttige kundigheden, 1843, p. 224.
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