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Side 2
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Detail, side 1
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Detail, side 2
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Detail, side 2
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Detail, top strip
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Links
Subject
Secular. Hunting Scene.
Repository Institution
www.vam.ac.uk
To purchase an image
www.vandaimages.com
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London, Victoria and Albert Museum
7954-1862
Walrus ivory;silver
Length: 585 mm (ivory only)
The decoration is arranged in eight strips.
Top strip: four crowns; acanthus leaves; mask; vine with grapes; hybrid creatures; acanthus leaves; snakes; wild man.
Side 1, with bell on left
Strip 1: hybrid creatures fighting (dragons); animals including a bear; acanthus leaves.
Strip 2: Saint Christopher carrying Christ across the river; hermit holding a lantern on the river bank; hermit holding a chaplet; chapel; hares running into their holes; seven soldiers attacking a dragon in a cave; hunters holding spears; bear devouring a bird; dragons; wild man and lady embracing; trees; rocks.
Strip 3: man led by two ladies; heads emerging from holes; courting couple (meeting of lovers); couple embracing; two shepherds; sheep; goats; trees; rocks; foliated decoration.
Side 2, with bell on right
Strip 1: acanthus leaves; mating hares; wolf attacking a sheep; fox attacking a bird; lion attacking a dragon; eagle attacking a swan.
Strip 2: bear; hunter holding a spear; hunter blowing a horn and holding a sword; acanthus leaves; dogs pursuing a stag and a doe.
Strip 3: acanthus leaves; hunters; hunters holding spears; dogs; hunter on foot carrying a dead prey on a pole;
Bottom strip: acanthus leaves.
Maskell 1872: German, 15th century.
Longhurst 1929: German, 16th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: England, probably early 15th century. Radiocarbon dating (2011): 95.4% probability that the walrus died between 1171 and 1294.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round
Object Condition
Few longitudinal surface cracks.
The silver mouthpiece and flared bell and mounts are post-medieval.
Comments
The four crowns in the top strip would seem to indicate a royal or aristocratic commission (Williamson and Davies 2014).
Provenance
Possibly from the collection of Count Clement-Wenceslas de Renesse-Breidbach (b. 1776, d. 1833)(according to Labarte 1847). Debruge-Duménil collection, Paris: sale, Paris, 12 March 1850, lot 154; Collection of Prince Petr Soltykoff (b. c. 1801, d. 1889): sold, Paris, Drouot, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29 April and 1 May 1861, lot 377; bought by John Webb, London at this sale; purchased from Webb by the museum in 1862.
Bibliography
A. Du Sommerard, Les Arts du Moyen Âge (Paris, 1838-46), album: 5th series, pl. 36.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), pp. 36-37.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval (London, 1875), p. 113.
J. Alois Kuhn, Katalog für die Ausstellung der Werke älterer Meister (Munich, 1876), pt II: Katalog der Kunst und Kunstindustrie-Ausstellung alter und neuer deutscher Meister, cat. no. 549.
V. Gay, Glossaire archéologique du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance, I (Paris, 1887-1928), p. 423.
E. Molinier, Histoire générale des Arts appliqués à l'Industrie (Paris, 1896), I: Les Ivoires, p. 197, note 3.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), p. 243.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 88.
Tardy, Les Ivoires (Paris, 1966), p.140.
W. Topić-Mersmann, Gotički Lovački rog od Morževe kljove - Ein gotisches Jagdhorn aus Walrosszahn, Studije Muzeja Mimara 5 (Zagreb, 1990), figs, 4-5, 14.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 251.
Image
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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