Also pictured here is a page from a 17th century German large folio manuscript of 31pp entitled “Kurzer Extract von Säumung der Pferdt” – a treatise on bits made up of 29 full-page watercolour illustrations of different types and brief commentaries on their use. A little dampstained to one corner, this manuscript in near contemporary boards was sold for £1400 in the May 24 Continental Books sale at Sotheby’s (buyer's premium 17.5/15/10 per cent).
Sold for £4200 in that same Sotheby’s sale was a 16th century Italian manuscript containing within its 342pp, over 300 drawings of horse brands used by Italian secular and ecclesiastical nobility.
Equestrian bits and pieces
UK: ONE of numerous full-page woodcut illustrations of bridles, bits, etc. to be found in a 1602 Naples first of Piero Antonio Ferraro’s Cavallo Frenato..., bound in contemporary limp vellum, that sold at £1950 (Traylen) in the Dominic Winter, Swindon (buyer's premium 12.5 per cent) sale.
