Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; saint Denis holding his head; saint James the Greater with pilgrim's hat and satchel decorated with a scallop shell; rugged cross.
Crosshatched background; scallop shells in the spandrels and in the border; letters 'N' and 'B' (monogram) repeated in the border.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 15th century.
Longhurst 1929: French or Flemish (?), 2nd half of the 15th century.
Randall 1994: Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1440-1470.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French (probably Paris), 2nd quarter of the 15th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding.
Reverse
The handle which was originally set into a slot in the back has been lost.
Longer edges slightly chamfered.
Object Condition
Cracked.
Missing: bottom left corner (burnt).
Three holes in the top of the border (later). Long vertical crack caused by the slot on the reverse.
Provenance
Collection of John Charles Robinson (b. 1824, d.1913); purchased from him by the Museum in 1879.
Bibliography
List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington Museum acquired in the Year 1879 (London, 1880), p. 14.
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. 111.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 322; II, no. 890.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 39, pl. XXXVII.
R. H. Randall, 'Dutch Ivories of the Fifteenth Century', in Beelden in de late Middeleeuwen en Renaissance, ed. by R. Falkenburg et al., Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (Zwolle, 1994), pp. 126-139 (p. 130, fig. 5).
P. Williamson, 'Ivory carvings in English treasuries before the Reformation', in Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture presented to Peter Lasko, ed. by D. Brekton and T. A. Heslop (Stroud, 1994), p. 200, fig. 10.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 140.
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