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Mirror case (valve de miroir) (Front)

Mirror case (valve de miroir) (Front)
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Back

Interior

Subject
Secular. Courtly love.

Repository Institution
www.glasgowlife.org.uk

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Glasgow, the Burrell Collection

Inv. 21.10

Ivory

Height: 122mm
Width: 120mm
Depth: 12mm
Weight: 120g

Attack on the Castle of Love; God of Love throwing arrows at lovers; God of Love with a hawk on his wrist; youth asleep; lady crowning her lover with a chaplet; youth with a hawk on his wrist; lady holding a dog; courting couples (meeting of lovers); youth chucking his lover under the chin; couple embracing; man climbing a ladder; jousting knights in armour; knights on horseback; couples watching from the castle battlements; portcullis; towers; shields; trees.
Corner terminals: four crouching monsters.

Glasgow 1988: French (Paris?), c. 1310-1330.
Glasgow Museums' opinion 2013: French (Paris), c. 1340.


Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy and gilding: red (rim) and gold (crouching monsters).

Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror. The reverse was once described as having a 'seal with the shield of France under a crown between two angels protected by a hinged ivory cover' (Museum object files, no date). Currently on the reverse is a dark green waxy material which forms a near continuous circle around the inner and would have originally covered the whole surface. The adhesive used to adhere the dark green waxy material can be seen in isolated patched on the ivory surface. A later ivory lid has been fitted on the back to cover the recess.

Object Condition
Several holes in the centre and along the edges (plugged).

Provenance
Bought by Sir William Burrell from Mr John Hunt, 1 May 1937 for £50; given to the City of Glasgow by Sir William and Constance, Lady Burrell, in 1944.

Bibliography
The Burrell Collection: medieval tapestries, sculpture, stained glass with paintings, alabasters, ivories and metalwork, exhibition catalogue, 1977, no. 181.
Rarer Gifts than Gold: Fourteenth-Century Art in Scottish Collections, exhibition catalogue, Glasgow, Burrell Collection, 1988, no. 12, pp. 18, 20.


Image

© CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection.

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