English: Comb case and lid

1400-1500
Italy
Moulded leather, tooled, carved and stamped
inscribed in Italian \"With good love\"

The high value of personal possessions encouraged the use of protective cases of all shapes and sizes. These were moulded and stitched in leather, and were close-fitting and light-weight. They are exceptionally durable, and have often outlasted the contents. Integral loops allowed the lids to be secured with a cord or thong, by which smaller cases could be carried on a belt for convenience. They could be intricately decorated with fashionable ornament, personalised inscriptions and colour.

This case was probably made for an ivory comb. With the lid removed, the comb could have been easily grasped along its handle, by virtue of the cutaway area at the mouth of the case. The inscription DE BOEN AMORE (With good love), and floral imagery make explicit the nature of the gift. A comb was considered an appropriate love gift from the lover to his beloved at a betrothal.

In his De Amore, written in the 1180s, Capellanus wrote that �A lover may freely accept from her beloved these things: a handkerchief, a hair band, a circlet of gold or silver, a brooch for the breast, a mirror, a belt, a purse, a lace for clothes, a comb, a keepsake of the lover, and, to speak more generally, a lady can accept from her love whatever small gift may be useful in the care of her person, or may look charming, or may remind her of her lover, providing, however, that in accepting the gift it is clear that she is acting quite without avarice.�