Adoration of the Magi; seated Virgin and Child; Christ in long robe; Christ seated on the Virgin's left knee.
Dalton 1909: English, middle of the 13th century.
Shepherd, Raison & Marder 1995: English, circa 1230-1250.
Museum's opinion 2011: English, mid 13th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Object Condition
Missing: head of the Virgin; head of Christ; right forearm and hand of the Virgin (replaced).
Head of the king on the right damaged.
Comments
The bottom is flat, with a rectangular cavity possibly to hold relics (now missing). This piece is similar to a stone fragment of a seated figure, dated 1210-1220, from Besançon Musée Archéologique (Hoffman & Deuchler 1970, catalogue number 67).
Provenance
Collection of William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890): bought from him 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. 248, pl. LVI.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 49; III, pl. II, no. 5B.
K. Hoffman and F. Deuchler, The Year 1200, A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970, no. 67.
R. Shepherd, T. Raison and L. Marder, We Three Kings. The Magi in Art and Legend: 25 October 1995 to 21 January 1996, exhibition catalogue, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire County Museum, 1995, no. 11.
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