Courting couple (meeting of lovers); youth with a hawk on his wrist; lady holding a glove.
Westwood 1876: England (?), 14th century.
Dalton 1909: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, early 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gilding in hair; traces of green paint on the chair and in hair; traces of red paint on base of chair and rose.
Reverse
Turned with a depression for the (missing) mirror.
Dots and short lines carved around a central drilled indent.
Ink inscription 'W. M.' (for William Maskell), and '100'.
Object Condition
Damage around rim. Central hole in the upper part of the roundel.
Comments
The edge has a groove to secure a metal frame (Dalton 1909).
Provenance
Collection of William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890): bought from him by the British Museum in 1856.
Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 850 ('58.211).
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 376.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 377; II, no. 991.
Art of the Courts of France and England from 1259-1328; L'Art et la cour: France et Angleterre 1259-1328, exhibition catalogue, Ottawa, Galerie nationale du Canada, 1972, no. 75, pl. 100.
L. Lam, 'Les valves de miroir gothiques: sources littéraires et iconographie', in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 74 (2011), pp. 297-310 (esp. p. 305, fig. 4).
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.
