A Merchant of Ivory in 16th-Century Paris: The Estate Inventory of Chicart Bailly

While we sometimes think about the past as distant and dusty, portals that can shoot through centuries exist. The estate inventory of Chicart Bailly is one of those gateways, and through its many pages we are transported back into an entirely different material culture – Paris at the turn of the 16th century.

Chicart, whose death in June 1533 led to the creation of the document, was part of a legacy of working with ivory, bone, and precious woods as a tabletier. This transcription and annotated translation of the inventory provides a key for new insights into this previously understudied profession -- the objects made, the varied media used, and the world of the Paris’ tabletiers.