Attack on the Castle of Love; winged God of Love throwing arrows at two youths; two ladies; band of pierced trefoils; meeting of lovers (courting couples); couples embracing on the castle battlements; lady chucking her lover under the chin; knights in armour assaulting the castle; knight climbing a ladder; knight being lifted onto the battlements by two other knights; knight holding a sword by its blade; horses; portcullis; birds in trees.
Corner terminals: four lions.
Westwood 1876 and Griggs 1904-1907: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 1978: France (Paris) or Rhineland, c. 1400.
Williamson 1986: France, mid 14th century.
Detroit 1997: France (Paris), c. 1350-60.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (Paris), 2nd quarter of the 14th century; attributed to the same artist as Inv. OA 6933 in the Louvre, Paris.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror. Corner terminal lions carved in the round.
Torn label with inscription: '[...]rious effects[...] vol. XVI [handwritten][WICK CO]URT,[GLOUCESTERSHI]re,[...]en from BBISTOL [sic, for Bristol]'(referring to the 1812 publication and the early provenance of the piece).
Small round red and white label with current museum number.
Object Condition
Missing: upper left corner termina; part of the rim at the back has been cut out.
Provenance
Collection of Richard Haynes Esq. (b. 1776, d. 1816), of Wick court, Gloucestershire in 1808. In 1836, reported as 'now the property of C. W. Loscombe, esq. of Pickwick House, near Corsham, Wilts' (see Meyrick 1836). Acquired by the museum in London in 1855.
Bibliography
S. Lysons, 'An Account of a Curious Carving in Ivory belonging to Richard Haynes, Esq. in a Letter from Samuel Lysons. Esq. F.R.S. and F.A.S. late Director, to Nicholas Carlisle, Esq. Secretary. Read 26th May, 1808', in Archaeologia XVI/Part II (1812), pp. 346-347, pl. XLIX.
S. R. Meyrick, 'The Doucean Museum', in Gentlemen's Magazine (June 1836), p. 384.
J. C. Robinson, The Treasury of Ornamental Art (London, 1856).
HMSO, Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition (London, 1868), p. 67.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 4.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 872 ('55.43).
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXVIII.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library) (London, 1905), pl. XLVIII.
A. Michel, L'histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, 8 vols, 17 parts (Paris, 1905-1929), II, p. 485.
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), p. 130.
R. S. Loomis, 'The Allegorical Siege in the Art of the Middle Ages', in American Journal of Archeology, 2nd series, vol. 23, no. 3 (1919), pp. 255-269 (pp. 258-259, fig. 2).
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 407-408, II, no. 1098, III, pl. CLXXXVI
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 49, pl. XLIV.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), no. and fig. 262.
The Medieval Treasury: the Art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. by P. Williamson (London, 1986), pp. 214-215.
European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. by P. Williamson (London, 1996), pp. 214-215.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, p. 73.
Il Medioevo europeo di Jacques Le Goff, exhibition catalogue, Parma, Palazzo della Pilotta, 2003, no. 55 (P. Ericoli).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), p. 438, fig. 189a.
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), pp. 306-307.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 204.
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