Damselfly & Snail Brass Bookmark

The margins of medieval manuscripts are often ornamented with elaborate decorative illustrations, also known as “marginalia”.  This bookmark is a detail from a sixteenth-century French manuscript and depicts a damselfly, iris, and snail.  Their exact, iconographic meaning is lost to time, but it is hard not to feel the poor snail's plight as he looks at the freedom of the damselfly.

Finish: Solid brass, electro-plated with non-tarnishing silver finish, giclee print