Attack on the Castle of Love; ladies throwing flowers from the battlements; courting couple (meeting of lovers); youth chucking his lover under the chin; knights in armour assaulting the castle; two knights in armour fighting with swords; knight with a club; knight lifting his helmet; unidentified coats of arms charged with (a) four pales (for Aragon?) (b) six bezants; horses.
Corner terminals: four crouching monsters.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (Paris), c. 1330-50.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold and red (roses, hair, mouths of the monsters), certainly modern.
Reverse
Back turned with a depression for a (missing) mirror.
Labels from 1900 Exposition retrospective in Paris and number '907' from Salting Bequest.
Object Condition
Missing: lower left monster; noses of the two upper monsters.
Broken in two pieces (repaired with linen). Deep vertical crack.
Provenance
Collection of George Salting, London, by 1900; Salting bequest in 1910.
Bibliography
Exposition Universelle de 1900, Catalogue Officiel illustré de l'Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Français (Paris, 1900), no. 156.
'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. 93.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 406-408; II, no. 1083.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 48, pl. XLIV.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 205.
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.
