Coffret à miroir en ivoire
(1300 - 1325)

The game of chess represented both love and war in the Middle Ages and the contest is mentioned in many of the romances of the period, including the story of Tristan and Iseult. It appears on caskets, combs, plaques and mirror covers throughout the fourteenth century in both France and Germany, and the three finest examples, of which this object is one, appear to come from the same Paris atelier, and perhaps from the hand of the same carver.