Shepherds Purse: manuscript - Weapons of Gouffier

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This item is included for comparative purposes, as there is no overt usage as a belt. The source is identified as "Weapons of Gouffier: August" (Chateau Ecouen) suggesting a French provenance and a calendar genre. The clothing suggests a 16th century date. A neatly but non-nobly dressed woman sits and eats with a somewhat raggedly dressed reaper, she has a white, slightly fringed cloth spread across her lap, on which is placed a piece of bread, other bread and fruit sits nearby. Compare with the Bennick Hours scene. But compare also with the full carrying bags in mowing scenes in the Hours of Henry VIII (scene 1, scene 2). The lap cloth could conceivably be one of these bags after being emptied.

References

Medieval Women calendar, November 1999