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| Mirror Bronze and Walnut Italian, c. 1510 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
The history of the Victoria and Albert Museum reminds us of the Nineteenth Century ideals which prevailed as major museums were established in Britain. Victorian curators. Perhaps to assign importance to objects or perhaps to give an object some greater historical significance, wanted to associate items in their collections with known historic figures. Sometimes, this was based (even loosely) on fact, but most of the time, these associations were not only guesses based on provenance, but, simply, mere wishes.
When this carved walnut and bronze mirror (dated to c. 1510) first appeared in the collections of the V&A, the curators believed (hoped) at first that it was associated with Marguerite de Valois, the first wife of Henry VI of France. Why? The decoration of its frame with daisies (marguerites in French) led them down this rather precarious path.
Though the daisies would have been a clever pun on the Queen Consort’s name, the fact is that Marguerite lived between 1553 and 1615, almost a century after the mirror is thought to have been made. So…nope.
However, some association with an important figure could be possible. The mirror is Italian in origin and it also includes two emblems connected with Frederigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino - the ermine and the goose (perhaps readable as the Duke Frederigo's symbol of an ostrich) with an arrow-head in its beak. Could this association actually be true? Duke Frederigo lived from 1422 to 1482 and so it is possible that the mirror could have been made for his household or in his honor. Images of ermine and ostriches were used in the decorations of Frederigo's studiolo or study , built for his palace in Gubbio, Italy. His study, in fact, has since been removed from the palace and is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
What else is known about this mirror? Something more verifiable, hopefully. We know it belonged to Jules Soulages (1803 - 1856), a lawyer from Toulouse, whose collection was bought in bits and pieces by the Victoria & Albert Museum, after being exhibited at the Royal Residence (and, later longtime home of Queen Mary) Marlborough House between December 1856 and January 1857. But, as far as provenance goes, that’s about all we know for certain.
Still, it’s a very attractive piece. That alone, and its age, gives it all the importance that it needs. The carved walnut frame is surmounted by a scrolled pediment and set on a carved walnut pedestal, made up of four triangular sides, with broad tapering edges. The reverse of the base is painted with daisies.
The adornment on the frame itself is rather peculiar. The sides are decorated with medallions representing an elephant with a fly on its body, a goose holding a nail (or an arrow…it could also be an ostrich), two twisted ropes, also pierced with nails, and ermine with a blank scroll above it.
The mirror plate is made of speculum, a bronze with a high tin content which was used around 1500. While most of the mirror’s frame is original, pieces of the molding have been replaced over time.
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