Mirror Case with the Gift of the Comb

Description A couple is seen in the center of the composition; the gentleman, in belted robe, offers a comb to his lady. She is dressed in a "houppelande," with long pendants from the elbows, and her hair is braided and dressed in a cap over the ears. The landscape consists of a stylized castle at each side, a tree at the center, and a boulderlike ground plane. The subject is contained within a quatrefoil of tracery with leaf terminals. The circular mirror form is brought to a square with four leaf-corner projections with incised veins.

Exhibitions

• The International Style: The Arts in Europe Around 1400. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1962.
• Medieval Games of Love and War. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1995-1996.
• A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 2016-2017.

Provenance Lord H. Gibson-Carmichael Collection [date and mode of acqusition unknown]; Lord H. Gibson-Carmichael Sale, London, May 12-13, 1902; George R. Harding, London [date and mode of acqusition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1903, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest. Walters Collection

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1903