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Twelve Medallions Mounted as a Necklace

c. 1400

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

These medallions, which have loops on the backs, must have originally been sewn onto a garment or, more likely, a woman’s headpiece. In spite of the modern chain to which they are now attached, the medallions are unique items of feminine apparel from around 1400. Such items would have been well known at the courts of the Valois in Paris, Bourges, and Dijon. The central medallion with a “white lady” is enameled “in the round”––a new Parisian technique for enameling irregular or three-dimensional surfaces. Such white lady medallions are described in inventories of the period

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  • Title: Twelve Medallions Mounted as a Necklace
  • Date Created: c. 1400
  • Physical Dimensions: Diameter: 4.5 x 1.6 cm (1 3/4 x 5/8 in.); Part 1: 70.9 cm (27 15/16 in.)
  • Provenance: (G. J. Demotte, New York, NY, sold to Joseph Brummer), (Joseph Brummer, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Jewelry
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.507
  • Medium: enameled gold, precious stones, and pearls; some later additions with modern chain
  • Department: Medieval Art
  • Culture: France, Paris
  • Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
  • Collection: MED - Gothic
  • Accession Number: 1947.507
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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