Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds; swaddled Christ.
Pointed trefoils in the spandrels.
Dalton 1909: France, 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2010: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Recessed to receive the wax, with a raised border. Faint scratched inscription: 'Given to W F Smallwood at Ypres'. Glue stain.
Object Condition
Drilled holes, two on each side and one larger central hole above the canopy.
Vertical crack from the top down.
Provenance
W. F. Smallwood, Ypres. Collection of William Burges (b. 1827, d. 1881): his bequest to the British Museum in 1881.
Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 351.
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, pp. 590-1, in relation to no. 177.
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