Book of Hours of Simon de Varie

[5] The third was long thought to be lost, but resurfaced in 1983 when it was rediscovered by art historian and medievalist James Marrow in the possession of an antiquarian bookseller in San Francisco.

Art historian François Avril determined that the motto Vie a mon desir, which appears on a filo of a kneeling man dressed in armour and red garments replete with heraldic images, was an anagram of "Simon de Varie".

[9] His portrait is half of a diptych; the Virgin appears in a separate, opposite miniature, which is linked by floor tiles sharing a single vanishing point to those on de Varie's page.

[9] de Varie probably commissioned the book to celebrate his appointment as crown officer, a position he hoped would mark the beginning of his elevation on the social ladder.

Blue, rose red and milk white hues predominate, while the initials and parts of the branchwork are lined with gold coloured paint.

[9] The names of saints, feast days and titles of the months are sprinkled across different pages, inked in red, blue and white to echo the colours of the foliage.

[11] The figures on the margins are generally shown in motion: gesticulating, turning or twisting inwards towards the text or paintings on the main body of their page.

The artist was described in 1966 as "easy to recognise because he paints carelessly with strong mannerisms of form and colour ... the broad shape of ... heads, the blond hair, the fussy folds of clothing".

Both sequences are attributed to hand A (workshop of the Bedford Master), and are typical of the artist's manner; round, soft features and forms set in tight and crowded spaces.

Borrmann had contacted the book dealer Warren Howell seeking help in attributing a French illuminated manuscript he had acquired in London in 1979, and of which he knew little.

Marrow describes being left speechless as he realised that the style and four front piece illuminations could be attributed Jean Fouquet, the preeminent French painter of the 15th century.