It helps to have talent and important friends. It will not save you from the bubonic plague, but it can allow you to get a lot done. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage. open your picture Bible, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
France offered these oversized, well printed art stamps in the late sixties. Notice how the presentation is much less gaudy than the concurrent middle eastern Dune stamps on similar subjects. Despite being real stamps from a real country, the stamps share with the Dunes the trait of having very little value. I am trying to decide if that is a pity or just a great place to start a stamp collection.
Todays stamp is issue A430, a one Franc stamp issued by France on September 25th, 1965. This was part of a multitude of similarly formatted art stamps all with the one Franc denomination. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents whether used or unused.
The three Limbourg brothers were born in Nijmegen, Holland in the late 14th century. In 1398 their father died. They were then sent for by their uncle Jean Malouel, there are also Dutch versions of his name, who was a resident artist in the French and Burgundy Royal Courts. He got the three young men apprenticeships with the Paris goldsmithing guild.
On a trip home to visit their widowed mother, the young men were stopped and held for ransom in Brussels that was in a period of chaos. After their mother and the goldsmithing guild were unable to raise the ransom, Phillip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, boldly stepped in and paid the ransom. He did so out of respect for Jean Malouel. Once back in Paris, they were employed on a pet project of Phillip’s, creating an illistrated Bible, the Bible Moralisee. There exist still seven manuscripts of the work, intended for the French Royal families use. Phillip the Bold died in 1404 before the brothers Limbourg had finished the project.
The French Royal House of Valois was impressed with the work of the Limbourg Brothers, and Phillip’s brother, John the Magnificent, the Duke of Berry had a new project in mind for them. He imagined an illustrated devotional book called The very rich hours of the Duke of Berry. In it were over 200 illustrations that idealized Middle Ages life in the international Gothic style. This book is where the image on the stamp comes from. It is titled Leaving for the Hunt.
Keeping the Limbourg brothers working again became complicated. At age 24 Paul Limbourg fell for a French girl named Gillette. Her parents opposed the match, she was only 12. John the Magnificent had the girl confined until everyone agreed on the marraige. He may have been magnificent but that does not mean he did not overstep. The King intervened and had the girl released. Soon the couple snuck off and eloped.
In the first half of 1416, all under the age of 30, one by one John the Magnificent and all three Limbourg brothers died of the bubonic plague. The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry was unfinished. A later Duke of Savoy hired later Dutch painters to finish it. It is now in the pocession of the Conde’ Museum near Paris. Gillette survived the plague but hadn’t yet had children.
Well my drink is empty. You hear of course that having a Dutch uncle can be very helpful. For the Dutch brothers, having a French one wasn’t so bad either. Come again on Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.