| Date |
late 14th or early 15th
century |
| Place |
Paris (?) |
| Material |
Brass |
| Acquisition |
Presented by J.A. Billmeir in
1957 |
| Accession |
1957-84/17 |
Provenance
Billmeir acquired it with the collection
of Henri Michel, of Brussels, which he purchased about 1950.
The monogram or symbol on the throne, appearing to contain
the gothic figure 4, might be expected to be a maker's or
owner's mark, but has not been explained. The lettering on
the plate for latitude 49° ('PIS', of which the P carries a
horizontal bar, either a monogram or an contraction
indicator) was interpreted by Michel as Thomas de Pisan and
an imaginative provenance relating it to the French king
Charles V extrapolated from that; almost certainly it simply
means Paris (the latitude of the plate). The specific
latitude plate for 51° 40' however would suggest an original
owner in the Netherlands or Germany, or of course Oxford.