Rare ivory PLATE carved in the round of hump.... Lot 311 bis

Rare ivory PLATE carved in the round of hump. It represents a young woman in the grip of a donkey in a rural setting. France, end of the XIXth century H. 9.5 cm - 13.5 cm "The Golden Donkey" or the "Metamorphoses", a work composed in Latin by Apuleius, in the 2nd century A.D.; and divided into 11 books. They are the adventures of a young man called Lucius, who himself tells the story. Lucius goes to Thessaly on business. Lodging with an old man whose wife was a magician, he wants to become a bird, and wins over the maid, who puts his mistress' drugs at his disposal: but he gets the wrong box; instead of changing into a bird, he becomes a donkey; he can only lose this form by eating roses. He goes through a series of adventures before finding the opportunity to regain his human form, eating the crown of roses of a priest of Isis, and devotes himself to the cult of Isis and Osiris.