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Un pucelage couleur d'agathe raye à dents
Trans.: A pucelage the color of agathe [agate?] striped with teeth

Object Status:

Unlocated

Accession Date:

October 1765

Primary Source Reference:

Du Simitière Scraps, Library Company of Philadelphia, no. 96, 2

Additional Source Text:

"De la providence."

Notes:

Pucelage, literally maidenhood, or virginity, was a phonetic variation of porcelain, the common designation of the Cypraea, or cowry (marine gastropod mollusks), "which had been so called on account of the similitude of its flat bottom with the female sex organ." Paul Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, vol. 2 (Paris, 1963), pp. 805-806.