Christie’s offers a manuscript of the Lancelot Grail cycle in London on July 8, with an estimate between £1.5 million and £2 million. The Clermont-Tonnerre Grail comes to auction after 700 years in private hands.
Why is this manuscript of the Lancelot Grail cycle so rare?
There are about 200 copies of the medieval cycle of King Arthur in the world. Only seven are complete, and the rest survive in fragments. Few copies, moreover, belong to private collectors.
This volume is part of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, also known as the Vulgate. It tells the epic of Arthur and his court, with the quest for the Holy Grail, in addition to the stories of Lancelot and Merlin.
What other copies are known?
According to the catalog, only two other complete manuscripts of the cycle exist in private hands. The oldest of the three is precisely this one. In 2010, another copy, the Rochefoucauld Grail, was sold by Sotheby’s for £2.3 million ($3.2 million).
Dated around 1300 and probably made in Metz, the manuscript contains the first three texts of the series. It retraces the story of the Grail, the origin of Merlin, described as half-devil, and some adventures with King Arthur. Christie’s notes that these texts often formed a standalone volume.
What makes the decoration special?
The volume also features a higher than average number of miniatures and illustrations. The auction house attributes the 126 images to the Master of the Apocalypse of Liège, anonymous and active at the beginning of the 14th century. The attribution is based on recurring traits, such as dotted black eyes and red cheeks, illuminated by a very bright gold leaf.
However, the charm of the codex is not only about the figurative apparatus. Its provenance is also remarkable. The magistrate of Metz Michel de Gronnais probably purchased the book in the 15th century from another resident of the city. Later it was owned by Michel de Chaverson, the comte de Clermont-Tonnerre, Thomas Phillipps, and then Jean Lebaudy, a French industrialist and decorated in both world wars.
Christie’s has not disclosed the current consignor. The auction house will present the lot in the Valuable Books and Manuscripts sale in London.
Who might buy the manuscript?
That said, experts believe the manuscript could attract both institutions and private individuals. For academics, the potential entry into a public collection would be an important achievement, as the work remains almost unknown to the general public.
Irene Fabry-Tehranchi, from Cambridge University, described the prospect of the volume ending up in a collection accessible for research as “amazing.” In her view, the interest arises from the rarity of the text and its significance in medieval literature.
Overall, the Clermont-Tonnerre Grail combines rarity, artistic quality, and a 700-year-long ownership history. This very combination explains why the manuscript might attract institutions, scholars, and private collectors.
Image: Courtesy of Christie’s
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
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