Gothic Ivories Project | Mirror case (valve de miroir) (Front)

Attack on the Castle of Love; knights in armour assaulting the castle; knights climbing trees; knights on horseback fighting with swords; ladies throwing flowers from the battlements; shields with flowers; lovers; portcullis.
Corner terminals: four crouching monsters.

Molinier 1890: France, beginning of the 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, c. 1340-1350.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror. Labelled: 'M. Doistau', '956 arff'[?], '98'.
Screw thread for the object to be attached to its pendant.

Object Condition
Case split, then stuck back together.
Chips filled in with new ivory (lady's body, in upper-right).
Two holes in upper part.

Provenance
Douce collection, before 1836 (no. 18). Meyrick collection, 1872. Frédéric Spitzer collection: sold, Paris, 1893, lot 93. Félix Doistau collection, Paris (in 1900); gift of Félix Doistau, 1919.

Bibliography
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), Append. no. 14, p. 178.
La Collection Spitzer (Paris, 1890), I, no. 58 (E. Molinier).
Exposition Universelle de 1900, Catalogue illustré Officiel de l'Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Français (Paris, 1900), no. 161.
Les Accroissements des musées français, dir. by H. Rivière (Paris-New York, 1921), III: Le Musée du Louvre en 1920. Dons, legs et acquisitions, pl. 48.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, 406, 407; II, no. 1089.
S. Meyrick, 'The Doucean Museum', in The Gentlemen's Magazine, no. 1, April 1836, no. 18.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 172.

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