Dalton 1909: French, 14th century.
London 1923: France, late 14th century.
Leeuwenberg 1969: France (?), last quarter of the 18th century to 1st half of the 19th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: Northern French or Flemish, late 18th or early 19th century.
Attribution
Master of the Agrafe Forgeries (Leeuwenberg 1969)
Hinges
Two modern hinges on either side.
Reverse
Flat and carved. Back of the centre panel: diapered motif. Back of the wings: foliated decoration (lilies and roses) on a crosshatched background.
Object Condition
Carving on the reverse of centre panel is worn.
Comments
The position of Saint John the Baptist on a plinth is similar to figures on early-20th century Italian bone carvings (Dalton 1909).
Provenance
Collection of William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890); British Museum, by purchase, 1856.
Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 308.
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory, exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1923, p. 89, in relation to no. 153.
J. Leeuwenberg, 'Early Nineteenth-Century Gothic Ivories', in Aachener Kunstblätter, 39 (1969), pp. 111-148 (fig. 39-40).
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.
