# The Rothschild Prayerbook > Gerard Horenbout, Alexander Bening and Simon Bening, with Gerard David and the Master of the Prayerbooks of c. 1500 - c. 1505-1510, Ghent or Bruges > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/ghent-bruges-illuminators/rothschild-prayerbook/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-13 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Gerard Horenbout, Alexander Bening and Simon Bening, with Gerard David and the Master of the Prayerbooks of c. 1500 - **Date:** c. 1505-1510, Ghent or Bruges - **Medium:** Tempera, gold and ink on vellum - **Dimensions:** 228 x 160 mm; 252 leaves - **Object type:** Manuscript - **Period:** Flemish, early sixteenth century - **Current location:** Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth - **Attribution:** attributed ## Summary A Flemish book of hours of about 1505 to 1510, 252 leaves carrying sixty-seven full-page miniatures by the leading illuminators of the last generation of the craft, and the most expensive illuminated manuscript ever sold at auction. It has set that record twice, in 1999 and again in 2014.Between those two sales lies the reason it came to market. Appropriated from the Rothschild palace in the Theresianumgasse in Vienna in 1938, it was handed after the war to the Austrian National Library under the export-permit system by which the Republic extracted donations from the families it had failed to protect, and catalogued for half a century as Codex Vindobonensis Series Nova 2844. Austria's restitution law of December 1998 sent it back to the heirs, who sold it the following July.Nobody knows who it was made for. There is no coat of arms, no emblem and no donor portrait anywhere in it. The arms on the binding belong to a later owner and to a set of silver-gilt mounts made a generation after the book. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1505-mid-16th century** Unknown patron, Ghent or Bruges `[unknown]` (origin) The manuscript contains nothing that identifies its intended first owner: no arms, no emblems, no portrait. The Suffrages on ff.239-246v are later modifications in a different scribe's hand and may reflect a patron's wishes; the arms in the painted stained glass on f.238v, a displayed eagle and a shield of gules with a chevron and three small charges or, have not been identified. Christie's notes that there is no firm evidence for the intended owner of any manuscript in this group. - **mid-16th century-1860s** Possibly the house of Wittelsbach `[disputed]` (ownership inferred from the binding) The silver-gilt centrepieces carry the lion rampant of the Palatinate and the diaper of Bavaria, and are attributed to the workshop or circle of Wenzel Jamnitzer of Nuremberg. That is the whole of the evidence, and it is evidence about the mounts rather than about the book. Christie's states that nothing supports Trenkler's 1979 suggestion that the arms are those of Herzog Ernst von Wittelsbach and that the manuscript was later in the Palatine library, so accounts that route it through Heidelberg are repeating a rejected proposal. It is also possible the metalwork joined the book in the nineteenth century. - **c. 1868-1874** Baron Anselm von Rothschild (1803-1874), Vienna `[documented]` (purchase) Number 597 in Schestag's 1872 catalogue of Anselm's collection. Number 595 in the same catalogue, the Bening prayerbook for Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg now in the Getty, was bought in 1868, which points to an acquisition shortly after that date. J. H. Middleton noted in 1892 that two books of hours with miniatures by Gerard David had been in the collection of the late Baron Anselm Rothschild of Vienna. - **1874-1905** Baron Nathaniel von Rothschild (1836-1905), son of Anselm `[documented]` (inheritance) Number 452 in the February 1906 inventory of his estate, listed as hanging in the Galerie of the palace in the Theresianumgasse and valued at 150,000 Kronen. The Brandenburg prayerbook, number 453, was valued at 80,000. - **1905-1938** Baron Alphonse von Rothschild (1878-1942), Vienna `[documented]` (inheritance) He inherited Nathaniel's palace and, presumably, the manuscript with it. It appears in two subsequent inventories of the palace, whose numbers survive on the object: 927 on a label at the upper corner of the lower cover and AR3390 in pencil on the front flyleaf. Note that Wikipedia names Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild as the owner from whom it was seized; the Christie's catalogue names Alphonse, and this record follows the catalogue while recording the conflict. - **1938-c. 1947** Appropriated by the German authorities after the Anschluss `[documented]` (seizure) The manuscript remained in the Theresianumgasse palace until 1938, when it was appropriated. What happened to it between the seizure and its recovery, and whether it was earmarked for the projected Fuehrermuseum at Linz, has not been established in the sources consulted. - **c. 1947-1999** Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna `[documented]` (coerced donation) After the war Austria required owners of restituted property to donate significant works to state collections in exchange for permits to export the rest. The manuscript went to the Austrian National Library on those terms and was shelfmarked Codex Vindobonensis Series Nova 2844. It was published in full facsimile from that shelfmark at Graz in 1979. The Art Restitution Advisory Board's decision of 30 March 2022 places Alphonse's collection at Theresianumgasse 16-18 and Louis Nathaniel's at Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 20-22, which settles in Christie's favour the conflict this record recorded over which brother the manuscript was taken from. - **1998-1999** The Rothschild heirs `[documented]` (restitution) Returned under the Austrian art restitution law of December 1998 and sold within months. The exact date of the restitution decision affecting this object has not been established here; sources give both 1998 and 1999 for the return. - **1999-2014** Not identified in any source consulted `[unknown]` (purchase at auction) Bought at Christie's London on 8 July 1999, lot 102, for GBP 8,580,000. The buyer was not publicly identified and the seller in 2014 has not been identified either. Fifteen years of this manuscript's ownership carry no name. - **2014-present** Kerry Stokes, Perth `[documented]` (purchase at auction) Bought at Christie's New York on 29 January 2014, sale 2819 lot 157, for USD 13,605,000 with fees. The buyer remained anonymous until September 2014. The manuscript is part of the Kerry Stokes Collection and has been lent for display in Australia, reported at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **1999-07-08** Christie's, London, The Collection of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, lot 102 - Estimate: A high estimate of USD 4.9 million is reported; a separate report gives up to GBP 5 million. Neither has been checked against the catalogue - Hammer: GBP 7,800,000 (DERIVED, not stated in any source consulted) - With premium: GBP 8,580,000 - Christie's published prices include the buyer's premium, so GBP 8,580,000 is the total. The derived hammer assumes a flat 10 per cent premium, which reproduces the published figure exactly; the London scale of the period, 15 per cent on the first GBP 30,000 and 10 per cent above, would give GBP 8,581,500 on the same hammer. The 1,500 pound discrepancy is unresolved, so the hammer is labelled DERIVED. Reported at the time as USD 13,378,558 and as a record for an illuminated manuscript, at close to three times the high estimate. The sale as a whole raised close to USD 90 million. - **2014-01-29** Christie's, New York, Renaissance, sale 2819, lot 157 - Estimate: USD 12,000,000 - 18,000,000 - Hammer: USD 12,000,000 (DERIVED, not stated in any source consulted) - With premium: USD 13,605,000 - USD 13,605,000 has been printed as a hammer price, including by the trade press. It is not one: it is not a bid increment, and it is exactly what a hammer of USD 12,000,000 becomes under a premium of 25 per cent on the first USD 100,000, 20 per cent to USD 2,000,000 and 12 per cent above, giving USD 1,605,000 in fees. The derived hammer lands on the low estimate. It must not be promoted to a fact without the Christie's price list for the sale. The result broke the manuscript's own 1999 record for an illuminated manuscript. The buyer, Kerry Stokes, was not revealed until September 2014, on Australian television. The underbidder has not been identified. Re-checked 2026-09-25 against Christie's own published data by two independent routes, and both agree with what this row already carried: the house lot-search service for sale 2819 returns lot 157, THE ROTHSCHILD PRAYERBOOK, estimate USD 12,000,000 to 18,000,000, price realised USD 13,605,000, and the public lot page lot-5766082 prints the same three figures. Christie's still publishes no hammer, so USD 12,000,000 remains DERIVED and must not be promoted to a published figure. What has changed is the standing of the derivation. The premium schedule assumed here, 25 per cent on the first USD 100,000, 20 per cent to USD 2,000,000 and 12 per cent above it, reduces all 49 sold lots in sale 2819 to a round bid increment, not just this one, and the 49 published prices sum to USD 44,944,250, which is the sale total Christie's own results calendar prints for the sale, to the dollar. The nearest lot is a useful check on its own: lot 156, the Jan Provost Annunciation, realised USD 3,637,000, which is a hammer of exactly USD 3,100,000 under the same schedule. A schedule that lands on a round number 49 times is evidence; it is still not the house's printed rate card, which remains unseen. ## Exhibitions - An Illumination: The Rothschild Prayer Book and Other Works from the Kerry Stokes Collection 1280-1685, Australia, 2015 - Lent for public display from the Kerry Stokes Collection, Reported at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, since 2014 ## Literature - 1872, F. Schestag, Katalog der Kunstsammlung des Freiherrn Anselm von Rothschild in Wien, Vienna. The manuscript is number 597. - 1979, Rothschild Gebetbuch: vollstaendige Faksimile-Ausgabe im Originalformat des Codex Vindobonensis Series nova 2844, Codices Selecti LXVII, Graz, 2 vols, commentary by E. Trenkler. The facsimile made while the book was Austrian state property; its Wittelsbach and Palatine provenance argument is rejected by Christie's. - 1984, F. Unterkircher, Das Rothschild-Gebetbuch: die schoensten Miniaturen eines flaemischen Stundenbuches, Graz. - 2003, T. Kren and S. McKendrick, eds, Illuminating the Renaissance: the Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, catalogue of the exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Royal Academy, 2003-2004. - 2005, C. de Hamel, The Rothschilds and their Collections of Illuminated Manuscripts, London. - 2012, M. Krieger, Gerard Horenbout und der Meister Jacobs IV. von Schottland, Vienna. On the identification of the notname with the documented artist. - 2015, Margaret M. Manion, An Illumination: The Rothschild Prayer Book and Other Works from the Kerry Stokes Collection 1280-1685; and Revealing the Rothschild Prayer Book c. 1505-1510, Fremantle Press. ## Open questions - Who commissioned it? There are no arms, emblems or portrait, and the arms in the painted stained glass on f.238v have not been identified. - What are the hammer prices? Both published figures are premium-inclusive totals and both hammers in this record are derived from published premium scales. - Who bought it in 1999, and who was the seller in 2014? Fifteen years of the chain carry no name. - Are the silver-gilt mounts mid-sixteenth-century furniture from a Wittelsbach owner, or a nineteenth-century addition? Christie's leaves both open. - Where was the manuscript between the seizure of 1938 and its recovery, and was it earmarked for the Fuehrermuseum at Linz? - On what date, and under which decision, was it restituted? Sources give both 1998 and 1999. - Which of the four missing leaves carried which miniatures, and when were they removed? - Was it Alphonse or Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild who owned it in 1938? The Christie's catalogue and Wikipedia disagree. - Is there any open digitisation or IIIF manifest? None was found, and the images in circulation are all saleroom photographs. ## Sources - [1] Christie's, lot record and catalogue note for lot 157, 'THE ROTHSCHILD PRAYERBOOK, a Book of Hours, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM', sale 2819, Renaissance, New York, 29 January 2014. The primary description: collation, illumination, condition, binding, contents, the attribution argument, the full provenance from Anselm von Rothschild, and the selected bibliography. - [2] Wikipedia, 'Rothschild Prayerbook'. Tertiary; used for the Nazi confiscation, the Austrian donation and restitution, the reported sale prices and the loan to the National Library of Australia. Note two conflicts with the Christie's catalogue: it gives 254 leaves against 252, and names Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild as the owner seized from, where the catalogue names Alphonse. - [3] Paul Fraser Collectibles, on the 2014 sale: the estimate of USD 12 to 18 million, the 29 January 2014 date, the 1999 price of USD 13.3 million and the division of hands including the miniature given to Gerard David. - [4] Rare Book Hub, 'Rothschild Prayerbook sells at Christies for $13,605,000'. Cited as the example of the conflation this record corrects: it calls USD 13,605,000 a hammer price. It also gives the estimate as USD 12-18 million and the 1999 result as USD 13,378,558 against a high estimate of USD 4.9 million. - [5] Robin Halwas Ltd, bookseller's description of Christie, Manson and Woods, 'The Rothschild Prayerbook and the Cornaro Missal: Two Illuminated Manuscripts from the Collection of Anselm von Rothschild', sale catalogue, London, 8 July 1999. Establishes the sale date, the catalogue title and the dedicated two-manuscript catalogue. - [6] Wikimedia Commons, Category:Rothschild Prayerbook. The plates used here derive from the Christie's 2014 lot page (sale 2819, lot 157) and are tagged public domain as faithful reproductions of a public domain manuscript. Licence verified from the API field LicenseShortName for each file at fetch time. - [7] Kunstrueckgabebeirat (Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board), decision of 11 February 1999 concerning the collections of Clarice Rothschild and Louis Nathaniel Rothschild, published in German by the Kommission fuer Provenienzforschung. PRIMARY as to the decision itself. Used here for the date and terms of the restitution recommendation, for the finding that every object in it fell under section 1 paragraph 1 of the Art Restitution Act of 4 December 1998 because the gifts to the Republic were conditional on permission to export other works, for the Board's rejection of the argument that those objects passed for consideration rather than gratuitously, and for the fact that the attached object lists are not reproduced in the published decision, so the decision does not itself name this manuscript. - [8] Kunstrueckgabebeirat (Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board), decision of 30 March 2022 concerning Alphonse and Clarice Rothschild, unofficial English translation published by the Kommission fuer Provenienzforschung. PRIMARY as to the decision, and its statement of facts is the Board's reading of the archival file. It concerns a 1903 catalogue and a printed book, not this manuscript, and is used here only for the facts it sets out: that Alphonse Rothschild inherited the Theresianumgasse residence and collection from Nathaniel in 1905 while Louis Nathaniel held the Prinz-Eugen-Strasse residence; that the Gestapo sealed both residences on 14 March 1938 and the assets were confiscated on the basis of the Second Regulation to the Law on the Reunification of Austria with the German Reich of 18 March 1938; that Alphonse Rothschild's library and manuscript collection were moved directly from the Theresianumgasse to the National Library, with valuable manuscripts and printed items taken first to the Central Depot for Seized Art Objects and reserved for Hitler and the rest incorporated from the beginning of 1939; and that Clarice Rothschild claimed under the First Restitution Act on 30 July 1947, whereupon the Federal Monuments Authority presented a list of donations as the condition for negotiations on export authorisation, requiring over 250 objects as a condition for the granting of export authorisation for all the other art objects after their restitution. - [9] Proveana, the research database of the German Lost Art Foundation, collection record col00000293, Sammlung Alphonse Rothschild. A register record for the collection, not for this manuscript. Used for the record that one object from the holdings of the Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek was restituted to the heirs of Alphonse Rothschild in 1999, for the counts restituted that year from the other Austrian federal collections, and for the statement that the Rothschild collection was the first to which the 1998 Art Restitution Act was applied and that the works returned were those pressed out of the family after the war in return for export permits. Last updated 8 January 2026 at the time of checking. - [10] Lexikon der oesterreichischen Provenienzforschung, entry for Rothschild, Louis Nathaniel, English version. Secondary and scholarly. Used as the independent check on the point where the Christie's catalogue and Wikipedia disagree: it places Louis Nathaniel at the Prinz-Eugen-Strasse residence and the Theresianumgasse residence with his brother Alphonse, it records the Gestapo sealing both Rothschild residences on 14 March 1938, and it records that thirty-three of the forty-five objects in the Advisory Board decision of 11 February 1999 were auctioned at Christie's London in July 1999. - [11] Collecting the West: 99 Collections That Made Western Australia, Australian Research Council project LP160100078, object record for The Rothschild Prayer Book. Used for the current holding in the Kerry Stokes Collection in Perth and for its dating of the deposit in the Vienna National Library to 1942, which no other source consulted here gives. - [12] National Library of Australia, exhibition record for Revealing the Rothschild Prayer Book: c. 1505-1510 from the Kerry Stokes Collection. Used only for the loan and the exhibition title. The Library lists it under its exhibitions of 2015 to 2019 and gives a blanket date range for that whole listing rather than the exhibition's own dates. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.