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| Chess was played from medieval times onwards. It was a mark of respectability for the nobility and women were expected to be as adept as men. |
 1305-1340l Germany
couple playing chess |
 medieval chess problem
late 14th century France |
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Ivory and bone artefacts, drawings and carvings depict the moresca dance.
This well-known dance of the 15th and 16th centuries was performed both in court and in town celebrations.
Moresca is characterised by a lady, a jester and prancing dancers accompanied by a pipe and tabor player. The people are dressed in up-to-date fashion. |
 Bargello chess board
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 Bargello chess board rim |
 rim moresca dancers |
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bone and ivory caskets with moresque themes |
Boxes were made for the luxury and the urban trade in many workshops in Europe for many centuries. Some were made of wood and covered with bone or ivory plaques; others are of carved wood. Many designs were copied from one workshop to another and so were similar in style.
Musicians were a common theme. |
 11th century gable lid box |
 11th century drummer on lid |
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 15th century German, wood casket, inside |
 15th century German, drummer carved on back |
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 1430-60 bone box, Flanders, Belgium |
Games boxes have a wooden carcase, onto which are glued plaques of carved bone or ivory on all faces. The lid or side depicts moresca dancers and a musician. On the lids the player is usually in the centre of lower register. |
 1440-70 France or Germany, box lid
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| The base takes the form of a games board. |
 15th century Bourges, France, games board base |
Carved on the sides of these caskets are popular entertainments that carried connotations of sex, the folly of love and the power of women; the sides of the boxes depict courtly love, jousting and hunting, while scenes of Beating the Pear Tree, are now interpreted as denoting fertility. |
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 1425 Italy |
 15th century Italy |
 15th century Italy |
 1430-1460 |
 mid 15th century Flanders |
 late 15th century Italy |
 1440-1470 French or German |
 1440-1470 Germany |
 Cluny Museum |
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 15th century Bourges |
 1440-1470 |
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For more information on these games boxes see:
'Dancing, love and the 'beautiful game': a new interpretation of a group of fifteenth-century 'gaming' boxes', Renaissance Studies 24.1, 2010, pp.119-141 by Paula Nuttall |
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| Neither of these two carvings show a tabor but the left
hand is in the correct position for playing a three-holed pipe. |
 15th century Flanders |
 15th century Bourges |
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| Sometimes the moresca are on the side of the boxes: |
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 1470 Netherlands |
 side of box with dancers and fool |
 player on side of box
French or German |
 side of box with dancers and fool |
personal items |
combs |
comb, end 15th century, south Germany
Carvings on both sides include a pipe and tabor player; side 1 has a moresca design. |
 comb side 1 player |
 comb side 1 |
 comb side 2 player |
 comb side 2 |
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| comb second half 15th century, N Italy; moresca design carved in ivory |
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| 15th century comb fragment; moresque design |
 player |
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mirror case |
| 15th century Flemish or French, ivory |
 jester player |
 back of case |
 1320 lady combing hair |
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drawings, paintings, sculpture |
 1440-1450 Provence, France
Page from a manuscript Book of Hours.
The marginal drawings seem to illustrate moresca figures.
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 1440 France
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1520 Beverely Minster, England, misericord 
1460-70 Lille, France 
1460-70 Lille, 
1981 stamp [detail] England 
2020 Association of Dance Antique publicity 
1480 Munich, Germany, 
1844 frontispiece, copy of Betley Hall window Staffordshire, England 
