Gothic Ivories Project | Comb (peigne double; frise d'arcatures; colonnettes) (Side 1)

Courting couples (meeting of lovers)
Side 1: youth kneeling before a lady; lady chucking her lover under the chin. Seated couple; lady holding a dog; youth chucking his lover under the chin; God of Love crowning the seated lady. Couple holding hands; musician playing a string instrument; dog. Couple making a wreath by a flowery bush.
Side 2: youth chucking his lover under the chin. Couple playing chess; musician playing the psaltery. Couple kneeling before the God of Love; God of Love in a tree throwing arrows at lovers. Lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet.
Masks and hybrids in the spandrels.

Koechlin 1924 and Vitali 1976: France, 1st half of 14th century.
Chiesi 2011: German (Cologne?), 1300-1330.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on both sides.

Object Condition
Three teeth broken. The left part of the comb has broken away and been glued back into place.

Comments
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
G. Sangiorgi, Collection Carrand au Bargello (Rome, 1895), p. 13, no. 22.
I. B. Supino, Catalogo del R. Museo Nazionale di Firenze (Rome, 1898), p. 242, no. 139.
E. Gerspach, 'La Collection Carrand au musée national de Florence', in Les Arts, 32 (August 1904), p. 29.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 426-427; II, no. 1148; III, pl. CXCI.
Firenze ai tempi di Dante, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Certosa di Galluzo, 1966, p. 124, no. 147, pl. 54 (mistakenly reproducing Inv. 140 C instead of Inv. 139 C; pl. 55 reproduces Inv. 139 C).
L. Vitali, Avori gotici francesi (Milan, 1976), p. 27, no. 13.
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), pp. 259-271.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 209.

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