Griggs 1904-1907: Italy, 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: Italy, 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: Northern Italy (probably Venice), c. 1360-1400.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold (painted foliage), blue, red (one side of the sheath once only had painted foliated cross decoration visible in older photographs).
Reverse
Handle carved on both sides.
Object Condition
Some of the undercut foliage broke off and was repaired (including the upper part of the foliage stems and foliage at the rear of the lion on the top.
A damaged area bnear the centaur has been glued back.
The handle is made from a single block of ivory, the sheath from two curving panels, held together with ivory pins..
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London (by 1862): purchased from him by the Museum in 1866.
Bibliography
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862..., revised edition, exhibition catalogue (London, 1863), no. 150.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 66.
The South Kensington Museum (London, 1881), pl. 82.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXXVI.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 69, pl. LVIII.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 226.
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