Beschreibung:

Circle of Ulrich Schreier (fl.1457-c.1490) All Saints, historiated initial 'O' cut from a choirbook [southern Germany or Austria, c.1460-90] A lively example of southern German/Austrian illumination of the second half of the 15th century, associable with the work of Ulrich Schreier 82 x 97mm. The initial 'O' perhaps introducing the antiphon 'O quam gloriosum' on All Saints' Day, reverse with part of 3 lines of text and music in Hufnagelschrift on five-line staves, rastrum 17mm (cut to shape). Window mount. Provenance: (1) Franz Trau (1842-1905), of Vienna: his sale, Vienna, Gilhofer & Ranschburg, 27-28 October 1905, lot 101, bought by Fraulein Wittgenstein. The sister cutting depicting Sts Elizabeth, Margaret and Katherine (later Sotheby's 19 June 1990 lot 37 and again 7 December 2004 lot 24) was lot 100 in the same sale and described as being from the collection of Johann Friedrich, Freiherr von Ferstel (1828–83). (2) Rudolf Wien, New York, bought together with its sister cutting by: (3) Eric Korner (1893-1980), his nos. 53 (the present cutting) and 54: his sale, Sotheby's 19 June 1990, lot 36. The style of illumination was associated in the Korner sale with the work of Ulrich Schreier one of the outstanding artists of 15th-century Austria. Schreier took commissions from many important ecclesiastical patrons and had workshops in Salzburg, Vienna, and Preßburg. A complete leaf with a miniature of the Birth of the Virgin, apparently from the same parent manuscript, was in L'Art Ancien, cat.47, no 12.