The Wardington Hours, a lavishly illuminated medieval manuscript, has been acquired by the British Library following a successful fundraising campaign, and went on public display on 28 June 2007.

The acquisition was supported with a major grant of £250,000 from leading art charity The Art Fund, together with donations from Friends of the National Libraries, Friends of the British Library, and Breslauer Bequest. The richly illustrated manuscript will be exhibited in The Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library, alongside other manuscripts produced by the same workshop.

The Wardington Hours is exquisitely illustrated and intricately detailed, containing a wealth of rich, colourful imagery. Illuminated initials with brightly coloured flowers and leaves on highly burnished gold panels feature throughout, and painted dragons with different animal heads decorate the pages. Eight large painted illustrations of the Passion of Christ, including the Betrayal to the Entombment, are surrounded by fully illuminated borders strewn with gold ivy leaves, delicate flowers and acanthus sprays.

The manuscript was offered for sale by the estate of the late Lord Wardington through Sotheby's in December 2006. It was bought by Hamburg-based antiquarian book dealer, Dr Jörn Günther Antiquariat, for £635,200 (including buyer's premium).

A temporary export bar was placed on the item by Culture Minister David Lammy, following a recommendation made by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest to defer the export decision, based on the manuscript's outstanding aesthetic importance.

Following this decision the British Library sought funding in order to secure the manuscript.

This story and onher gems from IBookCollector # 69. Subscription to this newletter on all antiquarian book matters is free - contact info@ibookcollector.com