9 - Lost and Found: Gothic Ivories in Late Medieval French Household Records

Summary

To Jehan Le Seeleur of Paris, for two ivory combs purchased in the presence of Madame, 16 sous. For two cases for the combs, and for a brooch, and for Madame's decorated mirror, 9 sous, 6 deniers.

This account is taken from an inventory that documents some of the possessions of Mahaut (c. 1270–1329), ruling countess of Artois from 1302 to 1329, wife of Otto IV, count Palatine of Burgundy (1248–1302, r. 1279–1302) and mother of two queens of France, Jeanne II of Burgundy (c. 1291–1330) and Blanche of Burgundy (1296–1326); a woman who had the financial resources to make lavish purchases. In fourteenth-century France, such household items as combs and mirrors, as well as trinket-sized boxes (misleadingly known as caskets, from the French coffrets) and devotional statuettes became expressions of their owners’ power, wealth, and social prestige when rendered in the sought-after, costly, and foreign medium of elephant ivory. It was important for Mahaut, as a member of the nobility, to carefully curate her public image, even in matters as mundane as personal grooming. The great skill and detail with which these objects were created resulted in their popularity and longevity, exemplified by their appearance in written household inventories of the nobility and royalty. In addition to being fastidious about her appearance and legacy, Mahaut was also adamant about accurately documenting her household expenses, probably because of her husband's significant debts to usurers c. 1295. It is because of Mahaut's insistence on careful book-keeping that, nearly seven centuries after her death, we can explore the materiality of her life through the records of luxury objects she commissioned, bought, and owned during her tenure as countess of Artois.

Mahaut's detailed inventories are a type of historical record that provides contemporary scholars with a plethora of quantitative information regarding the organisation and finances of a late medieval, noble French household. Mahaut was not alone in maintaining extensive inventories as a means of organised record-keeping; the ninety-nine-page post-mortem inventory of Clémence de Hongrie (d. 1328), queen of France and widow of Louis X (1289–1316, r. 1314–16), provides another window into the material life of a female member of the late medieval French court.