the harley ms was likely produced in a london workshop within a decade of chaucer's death, and is therefore one of the earliest extant manuscripts. it has some decoration in red, blue, pink and green, with gold leaf used on borders and initials, and like the ellesmere manuscript represents a commission for a wealthy patron (the style of the decoration is very similar to that seen in ellesmere, perhaps indicating that the same limner worked on both). in the fifteenth century it appears to have been owned by relatives of the haute family of ightham mote.