Arthurian manuscript could make magic at Christie's London

A rare manuscript containing early versions of the myths of King Arthur, the famed prophet Merlin and the Holy Grail will go under the hammer at Christie’s London on 8 July with an estimate of £1.5m-£2m.

The manuscript (around 1290-1310), painted on vellum and adorned with gold leaf, is known as the Clermont-Tonnerre Grail and thought to have been produced in Metz, northern France, by the medieval artist Master of the Liège Apocalypse. The manuscript contains texts from the Old French Lancelot-Grail cycle along with 126 miniature illustrations including the Knights of the Round Table returning from battle.

Eugenio Donadoni, the senior specialist in Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts at the auction house, outlines in a statement why the artefact is so valuable. “This is a rediscovered manuscript of one the greatest of all medieval romances: the story of the Holy Grail, Merlin and the young King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, texts fundamental to Western culture: [it is] beautifully and richly illustrated and the earliest of only three known in private hands, with impeccable noble, aristocratic and bibliophilic provenance.”

According to a Christie’s catalogue, the manuscript was previously owned by Michel de Gronnais who played an “active part in military affairs” in Metz in the 15th century; Michel de Chaverson, a 16th-century jouster from Metz; the comte de Clermont-Tonnerre, a French aristocrat; Sir Thomas Phillipps, an eccentric UK baron who amassed a collection of over 60,000 manuscripts and books; and the industrialist Jean Lebaudy who died in 1969.

Donadoni adds: “While I can’t comment in detail on the seller, I can say it has come from a long-standing private collection. It has been a privilege to have been able to work on a manuscript of this rarity and calibre… As Merlin himself prophesies in the text itself: ‘And the story will forever be told and gladly heard for as long as the world lasts’.”