Mount for Purse or Escarcelle (c. 1559): Art, History and Details

Mount for Purse or Escarcelle (c. 1559) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Diego de Çaias (Spanish, 1535–1560).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This object served as a frame for a mounted leather or cloth purse. Worn by men at the waist, such purses were attached by means of a suspension swivel. The handsome gold inlay depicting hunting and military scenes includes the inscription ALFONSVS ESTENSIS, as well as a coat-of-arms that identifies the owner as Alfonso II d'Este, created Duke of Ferrara in 1559.

Object facts

• Title: Mount for Purse or Escarcelle
• Date: c. 1559
• Creator attribution: Diego de Çaias (Spanish, 1535–1560)
• Culture: Spain
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: steel with gold inlay
• Dimensions: Overall: 19 x 13.9 cm (7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1550

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.