mirror;
locket;
mirror-case
- Museum number
- 1969,0604.1
- Description
-
Mirror case or locket, silver filigree with hinge, containing oval silver plaque engraved on one side with text and numbers. The undecorated back of the silver plaque forms the mirror. The filigree work in flattened twisted wire in the form of simple scrolls within a complex framework of plain ribbon wire incorporating the initials AF on the front, with a flower at the topand what may be a heart with incurved side at the centre. The reverse with large flower at the centre, the stem and leaves filling the lower half. Applied rossettes formed of granules on both sides, some missing. Twisted wire border and shaped foliate catch.
The plaque entraved at the top with an interlaced knot containing the names 'GAGE' and FAINE' with three crosses; the border with two row lower case inscription arranged so that it has to be read taking every third word (see inscription field). Some of the letters are engraved in 'bold' to indicate Roman numerals, concealing the date 1655, or 1656 if the word 'I' is also included, ie: MDCLIIIII [I]. Within the border, at top, a sun and crescent moon on a hatched ground with the word 'FIDELIS', and at bottom, the monogram 'Anne Faine'. In the centre a chequerboard of six squares across and four squares down, each square engraved with a number, superimposed with three gauntlets also engraved with numbers. The number sequence from top to bottom as follows:
row 1: 1, 3, 5, 7
row 2: 9, 11, 13, 15 (the number 11 on a gauntlet)
row 3: 17, 19, 21, 23
row 4: 2, 4, 6, 8 (the number 8 on a gauntlet)
row 5: 10, 12, 14, 16 (the number 12 on a gauntlet)
row 6: 18, 20, 22, 24
- Production date
- 1656
- Dimensions
-
Height: 9.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
-
Engraved plate appears to reveal hidden references to an engagement between Anne Fane and a member of the Gage family and the date 1656.
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The three gauntlets appear in the arms of the Fane family as Earls of Westmorland in the middle of the 17th century, but no marriage between the Gage and Fane families appears to be recorded at the appropriate date in the genealogy of the Fane family, see 'Victoria County History, Northants, vol.1, pp. 83-123. Three gauntlets sinister are the arms of another branch of the Fane family - of Fulbeck in Lincolnshire - who became Earls of Westmorland in the later 18th century. The genealogy of this family is also outlined in the VCH for Northants, but again there is no Anne Fane at the relevant date. (Information compiled from corrsopondence between John Cherry and vendor on object file, J. Rudoe 24.5.2013).
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Commemoration of: Engagement of Anne Faine
- Acquisition date
- 1969
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1969,0604.1