Couple playing chess in a tent; courting couple (meeting of lovers); man with his left hand around the pole supporting the tent; man lifting a chess piece with his right hand; lady holding two chess pieces in her left hand.
Westwood 1876: England, end of the 13th century.
Griggs 1904-1907: France 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (Paris), c. 1320-30.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy: green (later; on the background to the left and tent)
Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror.
Object Condition
Missing: four corner terminal (crouching monsters, as evidenced by the remains of their tails).
Chipped border at the top and bottom right.
Two holes drilled through background for later hanging.
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb, 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, 1862), no. 139
Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1867. 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. 8.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 85
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 882 (`73.335).
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXVII.
R. Koechlin, Histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, ed. by A. Michel, II (Paris, 1906), p. 496.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 338; II, no. 1050.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 196.
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