Seated Virgin and Child; Christ standing on the Virgin's right knee; Christ in long robe; Christ holding an orb in his left hand; belt; brooch.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: French, 2nd half of 14th century.
Leeuwenberg 1969: France, last quarter of the 18th century to 1st half of the 19th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French or South Netherlandish, c. 1370-1400.
Radiocarbon dating: 95.4% probability that the elephant died between 1285-1395.
Attribution
Master of the Agrafe Forgeries (Leeuwenberg 1969)
Reverse
Flat and smooth. A few notches on the side.
Object Condition
Missing: left forearm of the Virgin and crown; Christ's left hand (replaced); Virgin's right foot (replaced).
Christ's head has been broken off at the neck and repaired.
Chips to the front of the base; the Virgin's mantle has been pierced under her left arm.
Comments
Underside: central dowel hole, filled with a wooden plug, and two smaller modern holes to the left and right.
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, by 1862: purchased from him by the Museum in 1867.
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. 97.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 12.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 78.
E. S. Prior, A. Gardner, Mediaeval Figure-Sculpture in England (Cambridge, 1912), fig. 11, p. 10.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 235, 246, 251; II, no. 693; III, pl. CXII.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, II (London, 1929), p. 31, pl. XXIX.
J. Leeuwenberg, 'Early Nineteenth-Century Gothic Ivories', in Aachener Kunstblätter, 39 (1969), pp. 111-148 (pp. 120-121, fig. 19).
N. Stratford, 'Glastonbury and two gothic ivories in the United States', in British Archaeology Association (1983), pp. 208-216 (p. 215, note 11).
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 14.
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