A prayer book belonging to Thomas Cromwell, believed to the only object from any 16th-century portrait to survive to this day, has gone on display.
The 1527 Book of Hours can, historians say, be seen in Hans Holbein the Younger’s famous portrait of Thomas Cromwell, which was painted in 1532-33 and is in the Frick Collection, New York.
It has gone on display at Hever Castle, where in 2021 assistant curator Kate McCaffrey made the link that Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn also had copies of the same prayer book.
McCaffrey then discovered a third copy of the 1527 Book of Hours, which was donated to the University of Cambridge in 1660. When Hever Castle’s team viewed the book, curator Alison Palmer believed it to be the book featured in Holbein’s painting as she recognised its bejewelled, silver gilt binding.
The pair, alongside Dr Owen Emmerson, have traced the provenance of Cromwell’s book from its donor, Dame Anne Sadleir, directly back to Cromwell.
Historian, author and TV presenter Tracy Borman, whose books include Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I and The Private Lives of the Tudors, was among a team of experts that reviewed the evidence from Hever Castle’s team. She said the book was the “most exciting Cromwell discovery in a generation – if not more”.
The book is on loan to Hever Castle from Wren Library in Cambridge’s Trinity College, and it is thought to be the first time the book has been lent by the library since it was donated.
Catherine of Aragon’s copy of the 1527 Book of Hours had been on display at Hever Castle, on loan from the Morgan Library in New York. It has now been returned, but Cromwell’s copy of the book will be on display alongside the one belonging to Anne Boleyn.
Palmer said it was “thrilling to be a part of the solving of this 400-year-old mystery”.
“Seeing the evolution of the curatorial team’s research from my kernel of an assumption just under a year ago to the final identification of this book’s original owner is the finding of a lifetime,” she added.
Cromwell’s prayer book will be on display until November 2023 as part of the Castle’s exhibition Catherine and Anne: Queens, Rivals, Mothers, which showcases the similarities between the two women.
