{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O106326"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O106326/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GD3906/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GD3906/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GD3906","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD3907","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AD3425","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB2006","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KX5142","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O106326/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O106326","accessionNumber":"224-1867","objectType":"Mirrorback","titles":[{"title":"A Game of Chess","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This is an ivory mirrorback made in France or the Lower Rhine 9Cologne), Germany in about 1320-1330. The piece is decorated with a the scene of alady and gentleman playing a Game of Chess.\n\nThe major period of production of ivories lasted  only a little beyond the middle of the fourteenth  century. . .The waning of the French ivory industry  was largely due to the disastrous financial effects of  the Hundred Years War between England and  France (1337-1453), yet there was no immediate  end of the use of ivory as a material. The centre of the trade moved north to the new commercial centres of Flanders and the Netherlands, and there the major production was only of religious subjects (Randall 1994). With the exception of bone chess boxes and ivory combs with garden scenes and hunts, secular subject matter virtually disappeared from the scene.\r\n\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.\r\n\r\nGothic ivory mirror backs survive in considerable numbers. The ivory cases themselves, usually between 8 and 14 cm in diameter, consisted of two paired ivory discs (described here as ‘mirror backs’), often with four crawling monsters or lions (or leaves) carved around the outer edge. These ornamental features would transform the circle into a square and make the opening of the case easier, although their vulnerability to breakage is now all too evident. \r\nThe majority of the ivory mirror cases and their leather boxes must have been purchased as expensive gifts, to be presented by the wealthy élite to their friends, family and lovers, and often as wedding presents. The subject matter of the mirror backs was almost exclusively secular. \r\n\r\nThe game of chess represented both love and war in the Middle Ages and the contest is mentioned in many of the romances of the period, including the story of Tristan and Iseult. It appears on caskets, combs, plaques and mirror covers throughout the fourteenth century in both France and Germany. ","physicalDescription":"Ivory mirrorback. A young man and woman are shown seated in a tent, playing chess at a pedestal table. The man's left hand holds the pole in the middle of the tent and he moves a chess piece with his right hand; the woman wearing a wimple and with her hair gathered in two buns but without a veil, raises her right hand in an attitude of dismay and holds two of her opponent's pieces in her left hand. Within a border of semicicular arches with grotesque heads in the spandrils; the rim is plain.","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":"Games","id":"THES48947"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2013GD3906","2013GD3907","2006AD3425","2017KB2006","2018KX5142"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"021","id":"THES395350"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Mirror back","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"or possibly German (Lower Rhine, Cologne)"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1320-1330","earliest":"1315-01-01","latest":"1330-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"7.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"7.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"2","unit":"g","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"06/03/2023","earliest":"2023-03-06","latest":"2023-03-06"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"In the possession of John Webb, London, by 1862 (London 1862, cat. no. 140); purchased from Webb in 1867, for £8.\r\n\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Mirror back, ivory, A Game of Chess, French or possibly German (Lower Rhine, Cologne), ca. 1320-30","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1867. <font -u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1.</font> London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 8"},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret H., <u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory</u>. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929","id":"AUTH329986"},"details":"p.47","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":"pp. 85-86","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":"p. 313","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Koechlin, R., <u>Les Ivoires gothiques français</u>, 3 vols, Paris, 1924 (reprinted Paris 1968)","id":"AUTH332728"},"details":"I, p. 388, II, cat. no. 1045","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. 576-577","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":"p. 313","free":""}],"production":"Rhine","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"chess","id":"AAT222748"},{"text":"tents","id":"AAT5694"},{"text":"woman","id":"AAT25943"},{"text":"man","id":"AAT25928"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["224-1867"],"accessionNumberNum":"224","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1867,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-06","recordCreationDate":"2004-10-14","availableToBook":true}}