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

Courting couple (meeting of lovers); couple playing chess; man with his left hand around the pole supporting the tent; lady holding two chess pieces in her left hand.
Corner terminals: four crouching monsters.

Darcel and Basilewski 1874: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Kube 1925: France, 14th century.
Leningrad 1973 [Kryzhanovskaya]: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Kryzhanovskaya 2014: France, 1st third of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror. Incised inscription: letter 'a'.

Object Condition
Missing: upper left corner terminal.
Lower part of the mirror case damaged. Upper border chipped. Central hole in the upper part of the piece for hanging (later). Several cracks on the reverse.

Provenance
Collection of Alexander Petrovich Basilewski (b. 1829, d. 1899), acquired in 1874; acquired by the Museum in 1885.

Bibliography
A. Darcel, A. P. Basilewski, Collection Basilewski. Catalogue raisonné (Paris, 1874), no. 107.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), p. 409.
N. Kondakov, Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Ukazatel' otdeleniia srednikh vekov i epokhi vozrozhdeniia [Guide to the Department of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance of the Imperial Hermitage] (Saint Petersburg, 1891), p. 161.
R. Koechlin, 'Les Ivoires gothiques', in A. Michel, Histoire de l'art depuis le premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, II/I, (Paris, 1906), p. 496.
A. N. Kube, Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Putevoditel' po otdeleniiu srednikh vekov i epokhi Vozrozhdeniia [State Hermitage Museum. Guide to the Medieval and Renaissance sections] (Saint Petersburg, 1921), p. 9.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 388, 392; II, no. 1051.
A. N. Kube, Reznaia kost'. Katalog [Ivory Carvings Catalogue Hermitage], (Leningrad [Saint-Petersburg], 1925), no. 99.
Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Kratkii spravochnik s planom i 19 tablitsami (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1934), I, p. 96.
E. A. Lapkovskaia, Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Prikladnoe iskusstvo Zapadnoi Evropy V-XV vv. (State Hermitage Museum. Applied Arts of Western Europe from the 5th to the 15th century) (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1956), p. 29.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Puteshestviia v proshloe po zalam Ermitazha. Iskusstvo zapadnogo srednekov'ia [Journey into the Past in the Hermitage Rooms. Medieval Art in Western Europe] (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1963), p. 67.
Ermitazh za 200 let (1764-1964). Istoriia i sostav kollektsii (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg]; Moscow, 1966), p. 65.
Zapadnoevropeiskaia reznaia kost' IX-XIX vekov iz sobraniia Ermitazha: katalog vystavki, exhibition catalogue, Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], The State Hermitage Museum, 1973, no. 177.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, 'Kostianoi larets XIV veka i rodstvennye emu pamiatniki v sobranii Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha', in Kul'tura i iskusstvo zapadnoevropeiskogo srednevekov'ia: materialy nauchnoi konferentsii (Moscow, 1981), pp. 277-288 (p. 288).
Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh: Putevoditel' (Saint Petersburg, 2000), p. 178.
E. Nekrasova, Proizvedeniia frantsuzskoi reznoi kosti XIV veka kak pamiatniki srednevekovoi kurtuaznoi kul'tury, PhD thesis (Academy of Arts, Saint Petersburg, 2002), p. 42.
L'Ermitage di Basilewsky: il collezionista di meraviglie, ed. by E. Pagella, T. Rappe, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Palazzo Madama, 7 June – 13 October 2013, no. 39.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Petersburg, 2014), no. 103.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.