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Mirror case (valve de miroir) (Front)

Mirror case (valve de miroir) (Front)
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Front

Front

Subject
Secular. Courtly love. Romance.

Repository Institution
www.britishmuseum.org

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London, The British Museum

1856,0623.108 (Dalton 375)

Ivory

Height: 68mm (diameter)
Depth: 6mm
Weight: 20.8g

Courting couple (meeting of lovers); couple embracing; lady holding a dog; lady holding a chaplet; tree.

Dalton 1909: French, 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: French, 14th century (?) or 19th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror. Edges on the back have been filed or thinned. Centre pierced with hole. Modern ink inscription, 'WME' (for William Maskell) and '101'.

Object Condition
Pierced with hole at top for suspension.

Comments
Dalton (1909) believes that this mirror case has been filed down in order to fit into a frame.

Provenance
Acquired in France. Collection of William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890)(no. 101): bought from him by the British Museum in 1856.

Bibliography
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, p. 566, in relation to no. 163.
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 375, Pl. LXXXVIII.


Image

© The British Museum, London.

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