Bowl
1300-1325 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This bowl was probably intended for use while dining and is likely to have been used as a drinking vessel. The bowl forms part of the so-called 'Rouen Treasure' hoard, said to have been found in an iron box when pulling down a house in Rouen in 1864. Three further bowls, four silver spoons and a gold écu of Philip VI of Valois (ruled 1328-50) from this hoard are also in the V&A, whilst other bowls are in Paris ( the Louvre and the Cluny Museums) asnd in St Petersburg (the Hermitage).
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Silver, raised |
Brief description | Circular silver bowl, undecorated, with engraved coat-of-arms under base, with the mark for Paris ca.1300-1325. |
Physical description | Circular silver bowl, undecorated, with an engraved coat-of-arms ( showing two wings or sails below a fleur-de-lis) under the base, stamped with a fleur-de-lis within a diamond, the mark used by the goldsmiths of Paris after 1313. |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions |
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Object history | The bowl forms part of the so-called 'Rouen Treasure' hoard, said to have been found in an iron box when pulling down a house in Rouen in 1864. Three further bowls (106 to 108-1865), four silver spoons (110 to 113-1865) and a gold écu of Philip VI of Valois (ruled 1328-50) from this hoard are also in the V&A. In 1961 Charles Oman suggested that they originally belonged to a larger hoard of silver, whose origin is unknown but was possibly near Gaillon in Normandy. This hoard also included pieces now found in the Musée de Cluny (traditionally thought to have been excavated in 1851 at the Château of Gaillon, once the country palace of the archbishops of Rouen), in the Basilewsky Collection now in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg and in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Duke Charles the Bold Exhibition RF.2006/635 |
Historical context | This bowl is much simpler in design than other bowls found in the same hoard but the fact that it is made of silver, rather than the more utilitarian pewter or latten (a type of copper alloy), suggests it was intended for use in an affluent household. It is probably a drinking vessel, called a hanap in contemporary French inventories, which also indicate they were often made in sets. A similar-shaped bowl can be seen in use as a drinking vessel on folio 55 of the illuminated manuscript Oeuvres de Guillaume de Machaut, Paris, about 1350 from the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris [Fr.1586], illustrated in eds. Pierre Ennès, Gérard Mabille and Philippe Thiébaut, Histoire de la Table (Paris, Flammarion, 1994), p. 42. |
Summary | This bowl was probably intended for use while dining and is likely to have been used as a drinking vessel. The bowl forms part of the so-called 'Rouen Treasure' hoard, said to have been found in an iron box when pulling down a house in Rouen in 1864. Three further bowls, four silver spoons and a gold écu of Philip VI of Valois (ruled 1328-50) from this hoard are also in the V&A, whilst other bowls are in Paris ( the Louvre and the Cluny Museums) asnd in St Petersburg (the Hermitage). |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | 109-1865 |
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Record created | November 4, 2004 |
Record URL |
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