Mouthpiece: head of a lady; chaplet pierced with holes; plaited hair. Scenes from the legend of saint Eustace (to read from right to left).
Wide end (bell): Saint Eustace hunting on horseback; saint blowing into a horn; dogs pursuing a stag; vision of saint Eustace; saint Eustace kneeling in prayer; head of Christ between the stag's antlers; ivy leaves; trees; tower; Saint Eustace and his family (wife and two sons) flee Rome; city.
Mounts engraved with animals (hare; dog); monsters (dragons); hybrids; foliated decoration; six shields, from top to bottom: coat of arms of Bohemia (crowned lion), coat of arms of the Duchy of Austria and Wittelsbach arms of Bavaria.
Koechlin 1924: France, early 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 1st half of the 14th century (?).
Williamson and Davies 2014: French (Paris) or Lower Rhenish (Cologne), c. 1300. Radiocarbon dating (2011): 95.4% probability that the elephant died between 1219 and 1280.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Old photographs suggest the presence of now-lost polychromy.
Traces of polychromy: pink (background around the bell of the horn). Traces of colored resin are visible under microscope in coats of arms: red (hatching in the arms of Bohemia and Austria) and blue (hatching in the arms of Bavaria).
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Object Condition
Missing: metal rim around the bell (holes).
The buckle fixing may be modern.
Comments
Longhurst 1929 doubts the authenticity of this work stating that it may be 19th century.
The horn in ribbed into 13 facets.
Provenance
The heraldry is generic and does not seem to apply to any historical individual (Williamson and Davies 2014). Collection of Lord Londesborough, by 1862: Londesborough sale, Christie's, 10 July 1888, lot 777; bought by Marks for George Salting; Salting bequest to the museum in 1910.
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. 214.
Dublin Exhibition of Arts, Industries and Manufactures (and Loan Museum of Works of Art), 1872, cat. no. 1253.
'Salting Bequest (A. 70 to A. 1029-1910)/Murray Bequest (A. 1030 to A. 1096-1910)', in List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Architecture and Sculpture) (London, 1910), p. 94.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 154, 459, 460; II, no. 1248; III, pl. CCV.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), pp. 51-52, fig. 5.
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), p. 212.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 250.
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