Nativity; seated Virgin and Child; seated Joseph; ox; ass.
Dalton 1909: Northern French, late 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: French, beginning of 15th century.
Leeuwenberg 1969: France (?), last quarter of the 18th century to 1st half of the 19th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: Northern French, 18th or 19th century.
Attribution
Master of the Agrafe Forgeries (Leeuwenberg)
Reverse
Flat and smooth, with some scoring. Ink inscription: 'W. M.' (for William Maskell).
Object Condition
Missing: Christ's forearms. Joseph's thumb has been re-attached. Pierced with a hole, by Joseph's right side.
Provenance
Collection of William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890): bought by the British Museum in 1856.
Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum, (London, 1909), no. 342, pl. LXXVIII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 307, 308; II, no. 846.
J. Leeuwenberg, 'Early Nineteenth-Century Gothic Ivories', in Aachener Kunstblätter, 39 (1969), p. 116.
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.
