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Belt pendant; reused as part of the binding of a book (Front)

Belt pendant; reused as part of the binding of a book (Front)
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Front

Subject
Religious.

Repository Institution
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London, The British Library

Additional MS 10301 (Dalton 244)

Ivory

Height: 124mm
Width: 47mm
Depth: 5mm (minimum)

Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist.
Titulus with inscription 'INRI'.
Crouching monster (dragon). Rosettes in the spandrels.

Westwood 1876 and Dalton 1909: English, 14th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Not visible, due to insertion in the binding.

Object Condition
Vertical cracks. Some holes visible along the edges.
Missing: lower part of the panel. Upper border chipped.

Comments
This fragment was reused to decorate the 16th-century binding of a 14th-century Martyrology, or Lives of the Saints, the Festivals, etc. on vellum in old English verse (Additional MS 10301). See the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts for further details: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8654&CollID=27&NStart=10301. The present binding was made by John Reynes in the reign of Henry VIII. The piece is glued into the binding. Inside the cover are the notes, 'purchased 1836' and 'John Peynes in the reign of Henry VIII; he probably rebound it, preserving the sculpture in ivory on the original cover. The book was added afterwards.'

Provenance
Acquired by the British Museum in 1836; the British Library opens its doors at St Pancras, London, in 1997.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 450 ('58.196).
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 244.
D. A. Porter, Ivory Carvings in Later Medieval England 1200-1400 (unpublished PhD thesis, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1974), no. 31.


Image

Conway Library © Courtauld Institute of Art.

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