Trinity; God the Father holding Christ on the cross; Gnadenstuhl (Throne of Mercy); dove of the Holy Spirit issuing from the mouth of God the Father; throne decorated with blind arches and foliated decoration; sun and moon; cruciform halo.
Diapered background.
Koechlin 1924: English?, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: English, 2nd half of the 14th century.
London 1987: England, late 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French (Paris) or possibly English, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
The handle which was originally set into a chamfered slot in the back has been lost.
Chamfered outer edges, except for the bottom edge.
Object Condition
Worn, probably from kissing.
Missing: part of the upper border (Inv. 34:2-1867 is the later piece of ivory which had been carved to hide this damage, probably shortly before 1867); arms of the cross and part of Christ's arms.
Vertical crack. Lower border chipped.
Provenance
Bought from 'Mr Willson' in London in 1867 (probably Samuel Willson, 'curiosity dealer' in London)
Bibliography
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), pp. 75-76.
N. Layard, 'Notes on Some English Paxes including an example urgently found in Ipswich', in Archaeological Journal 62 (June 1904), pp.119-130 (p. 129).
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), p. 108.
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory, exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1923, p. 89, in relation to no. 153.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 226, 330; II, no. 508bis; III, pl. XCI.
M. Longhurst, English Ivories (London, 1926), no. LXIII, pp. 48, 106, pl. 43.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 7, pl. II.
Exhibition of English Mediaeval Art, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1930, no. 456.
D. A. Porter, Ivory Carvings in Later Medieval England 1200-1400 (unpublished PhD thesis, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1974), no. 40.
Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England 1200-1400, ed. by J. J. G. Alexander and Paul Binski, exhibition catalogue, London, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1987, no. 624 (N. Stratford).
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), p. 71.
T. Richter, Paxtafeln und Pacificalia, Studien zu Form, Ikonographie und liturgischem Gebrauch (Weimar, 2003), p. 209.
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), pp. 458-459, fig. 6.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 64, in relation to no. 7.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 137.
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