Johannes Janson’s Grand Atlas, with its ’perfect description of the maritime world of all the earth’, published in Amsterdam in 1650, sold above hopes for Fr115,000 (£10,900) at Pescheteau-Badin-Godin-Leroy on December 22, helped by its 30 double-page folio maps, 16 in colour. Some 21 of them showed the
modern world from the Baltic to the Bay of Bengal; nine charted Ancient Greece. Several of the maps had minor tears.
Exchange rate: £1 = Fr10.5-10.7
Heures de la Vierge manuscript
FRANCE: THIS Heures de la Vierge manuscript, from Auvergne or the Lyon area (c.1485) fetched Fr215,000 (£20,5000) at Bondu on December 22. This Book of Hours (Use of Rome), 61/2 x 61/2in (17cm x 17cm), had a tired 16th century brown morocco binding but contained 14 full-page paintings influenced by Jean Colombe and artists from Bourges, and many of its 131 leaves (from a probable 135) had decorative borders with flowers, strawberries, fabulous creaturs and acanthus leaves.
