Presumably commissioned by or acquired from the artist by a member of the Mandersheid-Blankenheim family;
In the possession of the Broelmann family (recorded in Cologne since the end of the fifteenth century) until 1978;
Jan de Boever, Ghent;
Anonymous sale ('Property from a Private Collection'), London, Sotheby's, 5 July 1984, lot 252, where bou🦩ght by the present owner.

Cologne, Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Die heiligen drei Könige-Darstellung und Verehrung, 1982-83, p. 192, no. 70.

H.J. Tümmers, "Zwei unbekannte Tafelbilder von Bartholomäus Bruyn dem Älteren", in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, 1983, pp. 115-122, reproduced figs. 1 & 2.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The exceptional condition of these two paintings reflects in part the unusual stability of their background, having remained in the same collection for centuries. Their virtually immaculate preservation is also ultimately due to the purity of their materials and technique. The fine oak panels have perfectly intact joints, invisible from the front, and have never moved. The minute craquelure is even and smooth throughout the enamelled surface. The Nativity, with Donors from the Mandersheid-Blankenheim Family. The joint runs up throughout the coat of arms, but is untraceable across the painted surface. The second donor appears to have been added slightly later and the pentiment of the mother's brocaded robe can just be seen where it has been narrowed behind to make space for her daughter, who looks pale as she does not have the same preparatory layers beneath the flesh painting as the other figures. The luminosity of the painting stems from this layer structure giving an almost stained glass light from within. The Adoration of the Magi. This panel has one tiny crack in the lower left corner, and one or two minute retouchings at the edge in the extreme upper corners, with a tiny dent nearby. The coat of arms has been left bare perhaps in preparation for a donor. There is a little smudge, done when the paint was wet surprisingly, on the pilaster at the left edge. As with the pendant the immaculate translucent finish of the painting is extraordinarily intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The coat-of-arms on the painting of the Nativity is that of the Counts of Manderscheid-Blankenheim, an important family from the Eiffel area of Germany.  A Gräfin Elisabeth von Manderscheid was Abbess of the nunnery of Saint Cecilia in Cologne, which establishes the family's connections with the city, but the donor and donatrix of the present diptych have yet to be identified.

Barthel Bruyn was probably a pupil of Jan Joest van Calcar, a relative from whom he was to receive a bequest.  These panels are early works, dating from the first years of his career in Cologne, between 1512 and 1515, and reflect the influence of  Jan Joest.  They belong to a group of small panels that he painted in this period, all of similar size and each bearing a small shield, on some of which are painted coats-of-arms.  It would appear that many of these panels at least were not painted to order, but were left with the shield blank, to be filled in with the purchaser's coat-of-arms, and some remained blank.  It is thus possible that the donor figures too were added to the completed paintings, including the present ones.  Seven similarly-sized panels, including the present pair, illustrate scenes from the Life of Christ.¹  Other panels of the same size and period illustrate scenes from the lives of the Saints. The style of these works is remarkably consistent, with a very bright colour scheme and very similar facial types – compare, for example, the Virgin in the present Nativity, with her depiction in the Visitation in Bonn.²

1.  See H.J. Tümmers, Die Altarbilder des älteren Bartholomäus Bruyn, Cologne 1964, pp. 50-2, cat. nos. A8, A12, A13 and A14, reproduced pp. 150-2.
2.   Wiesbaden, Städtisches Museum, inv. 9; see Tümmers, op. cit., 1964, pp. 51-52, no. A12, reproduced p. 151.