Thought to be a wedding gift from William de Valence (d. 1296) (Earl of Pembroke, half-brother of Henry III through his mother Isabelle of Angoulême and her second husband Hugues de Lusignan), to his son Aymer (d. 1324) in commemoration of the latter's marriage at an uncertain date to Beatrice-Jeanne de Clermont-Nesle (she d. 1320, whereupon Aymer m. Marie comtesse de Saint-Pol, foundress of Pembroke College, Cambridge). If so, then why aren't the arms of Clermont-Nesle (gules sown with trefoils or, overall 2 barbels addorsed or) on it ? I suspect it was made for William himself and is earlier than had been thought--though if before 1290, the Brabant arms must be explained. The Lusignan arms are similar to Valence minus the birds. William m. c. 1247 Joan de Munchensey, granddaughter of William Marshal, First Earl of Pembroke (his arms party per pale or and vert, a lion rampant queue forchée gules (Tremlett, ed. Matthew Paris Royal 14.C.VII, no 29)); Munchensey is or three escutcheons vair (ibid. p. 76) with variants.
cf. William de Valence's tomb in Westminster Abbey,
also done in enamel and originally bearing these shields (several of the
tomb shields are now destroyed, but they are reproduced in C.A.Stothard,
The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, London, 1817, nos. 44-45, pls.
41-43)
cf. the hanap cover at All Souls College Oxford
(now on deposit at the British Museum), made for Raoul de Nesle (d. 1302),
father of Beatrice-Jeanne, who married a second wife, Isabelle of Hainaut,
in 1297 (Art and the Courts, no. 56; L'art a temps des rois maudits: Philippe
le Bel et ses fils, ed. D. Gaborit-Chopin, Paris, 1998, no. 135)
References:
Art and the Courts, ed. Marie Montpetit, Ottawa:
National Gallery, 1972, no. 51
Frick N6843 V37 1972
Gauthier, M.-M Émaux du moyen âge
occidental, Fribourg, 19, no. 143
Frick NK5013.5 .G27
Williamson, Paul. The Medieval Treasury: The
Art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V &
A, 1986, p. 195
Frick N5964 G7L66 1986
Age of chivalry : art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400
/ edited by Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski, London, 1987, no. 362
Frick N6763 A43 1987