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

Courting couples (meeting of lovers); couple embracing; youth chucking his lover under the chin; attendant with horse and whip; trees.
Corner terminals: four crouching monsters.

Westwood 1876: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924 and Vitali 1976: France, 1st half of 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 1978: Germany (Cologne), early 14th century.
Giusti in Naples 1981: France (Paris), 1300-1330.
Gaborit-Chopin 1988: Cologne (?), early 14th century.
Florence 1989: Cologne (?), beginning of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2012: Germany (Cologne?), 1300-1330.

Attribution
Master of the Cologne Casket of saint Ursula, also known as Atelier aux bandeaux gemmés (Gaborit-Chopin 1978)

Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror.

Comments
In all pieces attributed to this atelier, figures wear chaplets pierced with small holes, where gems must have been originally inserted.

Provenance
Carrand collection: bequeathed by Louis Carrand (d. 1888) to the Museo del Bargello in 1888.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 849 ('58.199).
I. B. Supino, Catalogo del R. Museo Nazionale di Firenze (Rome, 1898), p. 241, no. 133.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 376, 377, 379, 382, 384, 435, 481; II, no. 993; III, pl. CLXXVI.
L. Vitali, Avori gotici francesi (Milan, 1976), p. 26, no. 11.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), p. 209 (in relation to no. 239-240).
Medioevo e produzione artistica di serie. Smalti di Limoges e avori gotici in Campania, ed. by P. Giusti, P. Leone de Castris, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Museo Duca di Martina, 1981, pp. 98-99.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Avori medievali - Museo Nazionale del Bargello (Florence, 1988), p. 64, no. 17.
Arti del Medio Evo e del Rinascimento. Omaggio ai Carrand, 1889-1989, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 1989, pp. 243-244, no. 26 (D. Gaborit-Chopin).
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), pp. 248-258.
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. 568, in relation to no. 164.

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