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Mirror case (valve de miroir) (Front)

Mirror case (valve de miroir) (Front)
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Subject
Secular. Courtly love.

Repository Institution
www.issoudun.fr

To purchase an image
www.issoudun.fr


Issoudun, Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch

Inv. 11.1001.1

Ivory

Height: 60mm
Width: 65mm (together)

Courting couple (meeting of lovers); lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet.
Corner terminals: crouching monsters.

Museum's opinion 2012: France (Paris), late 13th-early 14th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror.

Object Condition
Very damaged, especially the area with the kneeling lover. This is due to the fact that this piece was buried in the ground.

Comments
This is one of the very few examples where the other side of the mirror case has survived, though in a fragmentary state. It is Inv. 11.1001.2, also in Issoudun.

Provenance
Found in Issoudun when levelling works were carried out on the land stretching between the Place Saint-Louis (former ditches of the castle) and the Palais de Justice (built on the site where the Abbaye Notre-Dame once was); acquired by the Museum in 1876.

Bibliography
J. Dardeau, 'Découvertes faites à Issoudun', in Le Bas Berry (1876), p. 183.
R. Soulat, 'Boîte à miroir et autres objets', in Le Bas Berry (1877), pp. 88-95, pl. 1.
Guide de poche, Découvrir - explorer - rêver, Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch (Issoudun, 2007), pp. 18-19.


Image

© Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun.

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