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Casket with arches (coffret; frise d'arcatures) (Body, front)

Casket with arches (coffret; frise d'arcatures) (Body, front)
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Body, back

Bottom

End, left

End, right

Lid

End, left

Body, front

Body, back

Subject
Secular. Courtly love.

Repository Institution
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Toronto, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

29133

Ivory;silver (straps and hinges)

Height: 53.4mm
Width: 133.9mm
Depth: 94.7mm
Weight: 295g

Lid
Register 1: Courting couples (meeting of lovers); youth chucking his lover under the chin; lady holding a dog. Lady holding a chaplet; lady chucking her lover under the chin. Lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet; couple embracing.
Register 2: Couple embracing; lady holding a dog. Couple conversing; youth with a hawk on his wrist. Youth chucking his lover under the chin. Knight kneeling before a lady who places a helm over his head.
Body, front
Youth chucking his lover under the chin; youth with a hawk on his wrist; lady holding a chaplet. Couple kneeling, holding the lock; trees. Couple holding hands; lady chucking her lover under the chin.
End, right
Couple playing chess; lady holding two chess pieces in her left hand. Courting couple (meeting of lovers); youth with a hawk on his wrist; lady holding a dog; couple holding a bell (tbc).
Body, back
Couple making a wreath by a flowery bush; youth and lady plucking flowers. Youth chucking his lover under the chin; lady holding a dog. Lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet. Offering of a chaplet; youth holding a pair of gloves.
End, left
Courting couple (meeting of lovers); youth with a hawk on his wrist; lady holding a dog. Offering of a chaplet; youth holding a pair of gloves; tree.


Koechlin Number: 1269

Molinier 1890: France.
Koechlin 1924: N. France, 1st half of 14th.
Lowden 2008: Northern France, c. 1325-1350. Radiocarbon dating produced a date of 705+- 30 years BP, i.e. a 95% probability of a date for the ivory within the ranges AD 1250-1310 and 1350-1390.
Museum's opinion 2008: France (Paris), early 14th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Object Condition
In excellent condition.
Missing: base (replaced with a large fragment of another larger casket and a smaller piece of ivory)

Comments
Bottom made of an ivory plaque.

Provenance
Francis Douce collection. Collection of Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick of Goodrich Court. Collection of Frédéric Spitzer, Paris: his sale, Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April 1893, lot 115. Sotheby's, London, 22 March 1966, lot 21; Hermann Baer, London; Thomson collection, Toronto: bought from Hermann Baer, 31 December 1969; since 2008, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto.

Bibliography
S. R. Meyrick, 'The Doucean Museum', in Gentlemen's Magazine (April 1836), p. 384, no. 15.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), no. 15, p. 178.
La Collection Spitzer (Paris, 1890), I, no. 80 (E. Molinier).
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 479, 482, 483; II, no. 1269.
J. Cherry, J. Lowden, Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 2008), cat. 40.


Image

The Thomson Collection © 2010, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.

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