Gothic Ivories Project | Writing tablets, 1 register, 3 arches across (plaquette; tablette à écrire); later reused to form the binding of a booklet (Front)

Tablet 1
Presentation in the Temple; Christ standing on the altar between the Virgin and Simeon; maid holding a candlestick and a basket of doves brought as offerings; hanging lamp.
Tablet 2
Crucifixion; Virgin and one of the Holy Women; saint John the Evangelist and onlooker.
Incised trefoils.

Koechlin 1924: France, late 14th century or early 15th century.
Däberitz, Bajorat and Wilfroth 1997: France, 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Reverse of the Presentation recessed to receive the wax, with a raised border. Reverse of the Crucifixion scene divided into 5 compartments, the central one being circular. This indicates that this panel originally was part of a set of writing tablets.

Comments
These tablets once formed the covers of a set of writing tablets. They have been later made into the covers of a velvet and parchment binding enclosing a set of 6 wooden leaves covered in orange marbled paper. Two clasps allow one to close this 'booklet'.

Provenance
Documented in the Gotha Schatzkammer inventory in 1858. Lost during WWII.

Bibliography
C. Aldenhoven, Inventar der Gothaer Kunstkammer (Gotha, 1858), I, ch. XXV, no. 113.
C. Aldenhoven, Katalog der Herzoglichen Gemäldegalerie (Herzogliches Museum zu Gotha)(Gotha, 1890), Elfenbein Nr. 6.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 194, 209, 220; II, no. 497.
U. Däberitz, I. Bajorat, R. Wilfroth, Verlustdokumentation der Gothaer Kunstsammlungen, I: Die Kunsthandwerklichen Sammlungen (Gotha, 1997), no. 4.

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