Lot n° 45
Estimation :
800 - 1200
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 11 077EUR
Liturgical comb in carved and openwork boxwood with two ends - Lot 45
Liturgical comb in carved and openwork boxwood with two ends, a detangler and a smoother, one tighter than the other, decorated with rosette, lancet, oves and inscriptions san . mal . pan . ser (without evil thinking); two slides on one side, with the clerestory decoration perfectly adjusted to the fixed part, end in circles on which was fixed a pewter mirror now disappeared.
Northern France or Flanders, 16th century
H. 11.5 cm - L. 17 cm
(two teeth missing, two ornaments)
Provenance: Former collection of Louis-Pierre Bresset, Château de la Rochelambert, Haute-Loire
The use of the liturgical comb is attested as early as the 4th century and fell into disuse from the 17th century. It was used to comb the celebrant before he went to the altar and to purify him from physical impurities. This gesture was accompanied by prayers that can be found, for example, in the Lunden missal (1514): Corripe me, Domine, in misericordia tua, oleum autem peccatoris non impuinguet caput meum (Correct me, Lord, in your mercy; may the oil of a sinner not trouble my mind). The use became widespread especially for the consecration of bishops from the beginning of the sixteenth century, before the mitre, to signify the order and tidiness of the mind.
Another function is attested by the use of a comb preserved before the revolution in Bouxières-aux-Dames, near Nancy, where a Benedictine abbey was founded at the end of the 10th century. It was used to cure ringworm.
The fineness of the carving and the delicacy of the ends of the upper comb, but also the accuracy of the clerestory decorations with the slides probably accentuating the fragility of the comb, show that this object with a much more symbolic character than usual.
However, boxwood combs with late Gothic motifs can be found in private inventories, and sometimes they also have engraved gallant mottos. They do not have a liturgical function. They represent gifts for wealthy, literate people, attached to a romantic literature. These combs were rarely used, but kept as a token of love or a sign of belonging to a settled and enlightened class.
Exhibition: L'art du Moyen Age dans les collections marseillaises, Musée Cantini, Marseille, 20 May to 20 July 1952, n°133
Book consulted: Edouard Fourdrignier, Le peigne liturgique, Bulletin de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, 1900, p. 159
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