Gothic Ivories Project | Panels (2), 1 register, 1 arch across; used as part of the binding of a book (Front, panel 1)

Panel 1
Adoration of the Shepherds; musician shepherd with bagpipes.Coat of arms with crest (elephant trunks, or horns) and lambrequins.
Panel 2
Adoration of the Magi with Joseph. Coat of arms with crest (dog) and lambrequins.
Angels holding scrolls in the spandrels with the incised initials: 'U.V.W.' and 'H.I.V.H.'; columns.

Attribution
Both compositions are based on woodcuts by Hans Springinklee (German, active 1512-22) made for the Hortulus anime printed by Friedrich Peypus in Nuremberg in 1518.

Reverse
Not visible.

Comments
The panels are used as part of the binding of a 1535 prayerbook. The initials on the scrolls may be related to the crests in the lower corners on either side.

Provenance
Collection of Friedrich Georg Hermann Culemann (b. 1811, d. 1886), Hannover; acquired by the city of Hannover in 1887.

Bibliography
Führer durch das Kestner-Museum, Part 2: Mittelalter und Neuzeit, ed. by C. Schuchhardt (Hannover, 1904), p. 108, no. Z 9.
Fälschung und Forschung, exhibition catalogue, Essen, Museum Folkwang and Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesit, October 1976-March 1977, no. 63.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 66.

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