The only known signed mediæval ivory is a box in the British Museum which bears the name of _Jehan Nicolle_. In the Inventory of Charles V. the name of one ivory carver has survived, but he was also goldsmith to the king. “_Item, deux grans beaulx tableaux d’yvire des troys Maries que fist Jehan le Braellier, en ung estuy de cuir._” These _estuys de cuir_ were made of very beautiful tooled leather, two fine examples are in the Salting Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Reference is made to as many as three degrees of ivory carvers in the list of _mestiers and marchandise_ of the town of Paris in 1258. [Illustration: [MAYER COLLECTION, LIVERPOOL MUSEUM 32. FIRST LEAF OF A DIPTYCH French, fourteenth century] As the country grew more settled, riches and comfort increased, and once more the ivory carvers turned their attention to ornamenting the little objects of civil life, and we find exquisitely carved writing tablets, caskets and articles for the toilet, as combs, long hair wavers, and above all, the covers for the little metal mirrors that were worn hanging from the girdle. No self-respecting woman could dispense with these little luxuries, and in the lengthy _Miroir de Mariage_ of Eustache Deschamps, one verse deals with the requirements of a wife: _Pigne, tressoir, semblablement Et miroir, pour moy ordonner D’yvoire me devez donner, Et l’estuy qui soit noble et gent Pendre a cheannes d’argent._ [Illustration: ALINARI PHOTO.] [BARGELLO, FLORENCE 33. PLAQUE FROM A CASKET French, fourteenth century] Quite a new range of subjects were introduced at the end of the thirteenth century, and in civil as in religious subjects the compositions were fixed and varied but little afterwards; though we know that about 1340 there was a complete change in dress, and the old-fashioned long loose robes, which fell in such soft folds were discarded for tighter and rather shorter garments; these are sometimes seen in social groups, as the games of _la mourre_ and _la main chaude_ (a sort of forfeits), which are carved on a pair of writing tablets in the Louvre. The subjects are nearly all from literary sources, the miniatures of the MSS. having once more furnished models for the ivory carver. There is a beautiful little casket in the British Museum with scenes from the romance of _La Chastelaine de Vergi_, and the delightful dancing group in the Bargello (Fig. 33) formed part of a similar casket. The rhythmic flow of the soft rich drapery as the dancers move to the sound of music is exceedingly beautiful and the treatment broad, considering that the whole scene is contained in little more than six square inches. The figures are well proportioned, but with hardly any muscular development, and there is an entire absence of manliness in the male figures, who can only be recognized by the arrangement of the hair, the centre lock being cut across the forehead, and by the slightly shorter robes.