Four compartments formed by the branches of trees in the centre and on the sides.
Courting couples (meeting of lovers); offering of a chaplet; youth holding a pair of gloves; youth chucking his lover under the chin; youth with a hawk on his wrist; lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet.
Griggs 1904-1907: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (Paris), c. 1320-30.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror.
Object Condition
Very damaged. Worn. Surface with small pitted incisions.
Missing: rim, reverse chipped at lower right and at the bottom of the raised circle.
Hole in the upper part of the mirror case.
Provenance
Collection of Earl Albert Denison of Londesborough (b. 1805, d. 1860), by 1857: sold to the museum, Christie's, London, 10 July 1888, lot 753 (£31.10s).
Bibliography
F. W. Fairholt, Miscellanea graphica: representations of ancient, medieval, and renaissance remains in the possession of Lord Londesborough (London, 1857), pl. IV, fig. 5.
W. Chaffers, Catalogue of the Londesborough Collection of Arms and Armour, with a descriptive account of the antiquities and works of art, the property of Lord Londesborough, (London, 1872), no. 1190.
List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington Museum acquired during the Year 1888 (London, 1889), p. 125
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXVII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 382; II, no. 1011.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 45, pl. XLIII.
B. Roy, ‘Archéologie de l’amour courtois: note sur les miroirs d’ivoire’, in F. Pomel (ed.), Miroirs et jeux de miroirs dans la littérature médiévale (Rennes, 2003), p. 238, fig. 9.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 200.
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