Vannes, Musée d'histoire et d'archéologie (fonds Société Polymathique du Morbihan)
Garden of love; courting couples (meeting of lovers); fashionable dress; various trees with flowers and fruits (6 scenes). Seated couple; lady holding a book with inscription in Gothic script 'abcde'. Seated couple drinking (possibly wine) by a vine; youth holding a flask and goblet. Youth crowning his lover; couple holding hands; lady holding a bunch of grapes; hat with a feather; apple tree; bird in a nest. Musician couple playing string instruments. Couple embracing and kissing by a rose bush. Couple parting (?); man chucking his lover under the chin; lady holding a flower (?).
Koechlin 1924: France (Brittany?), early 15th century.
Nantes 1990: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2012: 2nd half of the 15th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Object Condition
Missing: parts of the rim.
Comments
Crown pierced with small holes, where gems may have been originally inserted.
Provenance
Found in Vannes when the Hôtel du Pouldu, rue du Drézen, was demolished; bought by the Société Polymathique du Morbihan in 1855, soon after it was discovered.
Bibliography
R. Grant, Vannes, Congrès archéologique de France, 81st session (1914), Brest and Vannes, p. 432, with ill.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 452; II, no. 1243bis; III, pl. CCIV.
Arts de Bretagne: XIV-XXe siècle, exhibition catalogue, Vannes, Musée d'histoire et d'archéologie, 28 April-4 November 1990, no. l.34 (described as a pyxis by C. Toscer).
M. Camille, The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire (London, 1998), p. 75.
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.
