{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O102749"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O102749/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GE2438/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GE2438/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GE2438","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GE2439","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AD3386","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AD3408","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB3039","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O102749/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O102749","accessionNumber":"2143-1855","objectType":"Comb","titles":[{"title":"The Judgement of Paris and David's message to Bathsheba","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This ivory comb is made by an unnknown artist probably in France or the Netherlands in about 1520-1530. It depicts on one side scenes of the Judgement of Paris (or more precisely, the Dream of Paris) and on the other David's message to Bathsheba.\r\nA very similar comb with the same subjects is in the Louvre (Molinier, Catalogue, No. 157; Koechlin, III, Pl. CXCIV). \nThe particular narrative of the Judgement of Paris seen here is derived from the medieval romance the <i>Historia Destructionis Troiae</i> by Guido delle Colonne, written in Latin in 1287 and widely disseminated in printed form the late fifteenth century onwards. \n\nIn the period between 1300 and 1325 workshops in Paris enjoyed a thriving market for secular ivory carvings. They produced mirror-cases, combs and gravoirs (hair parters), often selling them as sets in leather dressing cases. Subjects from romance literature appeared frequently, as did the allegorical Siege of the Castle of Love.\r\nThe comb has since the Antiquity been a fundamental tool for personal grooming, used both by men and women. In the Gothic period ivory was often employed for the production of deluxe decorated combs. The Gothic comb is always carved on both faces and consists of two registers of teeth, one fine the other broader, above and below the narrative strips.\r\nIvory combs, together with mirror cases and gravoirs for parting the hair, formed an essential part of the trousse de toilette or étui (dressing case) of the typical wealthy lady or gentleman in the Gothic period. Considering the original ubiquity of such combs and in comparison with ivory mirror cases, a surprisingly small number survive from the fourteenth century.\r\n\n\n","physicalDescription":"Rectangular carved ivory comb, depicting on one side the Judgement of Paris (or more precisely, the Dream of Paris) and on the other, David's message to Bathsheba. At either end is a panel with boys holding shields and conventionalised foliage on a hatched background.\r\nIn the Dream of Paris Mercury is standing above the sleeping and armoured Paris, who rests on a rocky hillock with a fountain behind. Mercury holds the apple of discord in his right hand and a sceptre in his left, and looks towards the semi-naked standing figures of Minerva, Juno and Venus. At the sides are two putti with shields and lances, standing on foliate pedestals below tent-like canopies with winged cherub heads above. On the other face is the scene of King David sending his message to Bathsheba, shown here with an accompanying handmaiden who holds her clothes. At the sides are two vases with tall stylized foliate shoots. The background of both faces are cross-hatched, and the scenes take place within a broad niche with foliate half-spandrels and a trilobe boss at the centre of the arch.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved elephant ivory","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Accessories","id":"THES48998"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2013GE2438","2013GE2439","2006AD3386","2006AD3408","2017KB3039"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES385982"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Comb","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably France or Netherlands "}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1520-1530","earliest":"1515-01-01","latest":"1530-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"REPRO.1865-118","id":"O1226857"},"association":"Copy"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"14.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"13.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"In the collection of Ralph Bernal, MP (1783-1854), London; purchased at the Bernal Sale, Christie and Manson, London, 21 March 1855, lot 1618 (£18 10s). ","historicalContext":"A very similar comb with the same subjects is in the Louvre (Molinier, Catalogue, No. 157; Koechlin, III, Pl. CXCIV)","briefDescription":"Comb, carved ivory, the Judgement of Paris and David's message to Bathsheba, probably France or Netherlands, ca. 1520-1530","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1855. <u>In</u>: <u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I</u>. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 66"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Kuhn, Dr. <u>Katalog für die Ausstellung der Werke älterer Meister</u>. Part II: <u>Katalog der Kunst und Kunstindustrie-Ausstellung alter und neuer deutscher Meister</u>. Munich, Glaspalast, 1876, cat. no. 568"},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret H., <u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory</u>. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929","id":"AUTH329986"},"details":"p.87","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Maskell, W., <u>A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum</u>, London, 1872","id":"AUTH330219"},"details":"p. 5","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Westwood, J O. A descriptive catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum. With an Account of the Continental Collections of Classical and Mediaeval Ivories. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1876","id":"AUTH315345"},"details":"pp. 317-318","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Winter, F. <u>Die Kämme alter Zeiten von der Steinzeit bis zur Gegenwart (The Rake’s Progress)</u>, Leipzig, 1906","id":"AUTH335720"},"details":"pl. 41, no. 121","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Koechlin, R., <u>Les Ivoires gothiques français</u>, 3 vols, Paris, 1924 (reprinted Paris 1968)","id":"AUTH332728"},"details":"I, p. 430","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014","id":"AUTH332632"},"details":"part II, pp. 628-629","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cooper, Tarnya with Eade, Jane,  <u>Elizabeth I &amp; Her People, </u>London, National Portrait Gallery, 2013, p. 126\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014","id":"AUTH332632"},"details":"Part II, pp. 628-629","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"David (King)","id":"N582"},{"text":"Bathsheba","id":"N572"},{"text":"Paris","id":"N55"},{"text":"","id":""},{"text":"Mercury","id":"N167"},{"text":"Juno","id":"N24"},{"text":"Venus","id":"N25"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Judgement of Paris","id":"V8"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"putti","id":"AAT250465"},{"text":"apple","id":"x30082"},{"text":"fountain","id":"AAT6179"},{"text":"shield","id":"x42653"},{"text":"lance","id":"AAT37029"},{"text":"cherub head","id":"x42904"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["2143-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2143","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-22","recordCreationDate":"2004-08-25","availableToBook":true}}