Description
Carved and engraved bovid horn shoehorn with black highlights. The very tapered shape is divided into four registers separated by friezes of hatching or interlacing; from top to bottom, a group of fruits, a young soldier with a sword and a shield, wearing a feathered hat and a ruff around his neck, a lansquenet holding a spear, a sword hanging behind him, a couple in Renaissance costume, the woman raising a cup with her left hand, the man seated next to her, both carrying a strawberry; date 1593 in the field; turned and panelled end-piece. Germany or Flanders, late 16th century, 1593 L. 47 cm (the flared end is slightly missing) This shoehorn is one of those objects for everyday use, made of inexpensive materials but decorated with refinement and refinement, featuring picturesque or heroic characters. A number of horn shoehorns are listed in museums, some bearing inscriptions or dates. The name of a craftsman, Robert Hendart Mindum, active in England from 1593 to 1613, is known to have signed several of these objects; it is thought that he was of Walloon origin, or that he was a French Huguenot who crossed the Channel following the Wars of Religion, prior to the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes in 1598. His workmanship, however, is slightly different from that of the shoehorn shown here, which is more closely related to a later example in the Louvre, dated 1623 (inv. 0A.190, fig.a, a'). This same workshop, like Mindum's, also produced gunpowder flasks, as can be seen by this one, also in the Louvre, featuring an armed man with a stump under his legs, as seen here on the two upper registers (fig.b.). Book consulted : - P. Malgouyres, Ivoires de la Renaissance et des Temps modernes, Paris, 2010, cat. 128 and 185, p. 186 and 235
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Carved and engraved bovid horn shoehorn with black highlight
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