The Kerdeston Hunting Book (Leaves) – ms.
London, BL, Add. MS 82,948

15th cent. (ca 1420-1430), England. In English (some French)
Vellum; ff. [vii] + 5 + [vi]; 280 x 190 mm. Miniatures, historiated and decorated initials. Bound in 18th century green morocco by Riviere with the Schwerdt arms gilt on spine

Produced for Sir Thomas Kerdeston of Claxton, Norfolk, d. 1446 (his portrait with his wife , f. 1; dedication, f. 2; his arms and his wife's throughout the fragments)
Former owners: Thomas Lennard Barrett, Lord Dacre (1717-1787) presented the book to Horace Walpole in 1768 (f. vii); Charles Francis Schwerdt (his sale, Sotheby's, 11 March 1946, lot 2255); Prince Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester, d. 1974 (bookplate )

Accepted in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the British Library in Feb. 2007

0390