Carved Wooden Marriage Distaff, Musée de Cluny, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in honey and boxwood browns, lettered "QUENOUILLE DE MARIAGE en bois sculpté (XVIe Siécle) Musée national de Cluny." The caption names a single distaff. It is shown at full length at the far left, a slender staff with an openwork cage near the top and a twisted lower shaft, and three enlarged sections stand beside it. The first is crowned by pierced work above a seated figure, with standing figures below and an openwork cage of curved ribs at its base. The second is headed by a similar cage above a column of stacked figures, and the third carries figures, among them a woman at a basket, above a foliate mask and a spiral fluted handle.

The running head reads "LE MOYEN-ÂGE ET LA RENAISSANCE" and "AMEUBLEMENT CIVIL, Pl. XVII." (domestic furniture, plate 17). The credits are "Rivaud del.", "Chromolith. Lemercier" and "Kellerhoven lith.", with "F. Séré direxit" at the foot. In English the caption reads: Marriage distaff in carved wood (sixteenth century), Musée national de Cluny.

Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance was edited by Paul Lacroix, who also wrote as the Bibliophile Jacob, with Ferdinand Séré directing the illustrations, and it was published in Paris in five volumes between 1848 and 1851. The work surveys the manners, customs, trade, industry, sciences and arts of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and its chapters were illustrated with plates after objects in museums, churches and private collections of the day. This plate belongs to the fourth volume, issued in 1851.

With its lettering intact, the plate suits a plain mat and a simple frame, and it hangs well beside other plates from the same chapter.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.