Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Reverse divided into 5 compartments, the central one being circular and deeper. The raised borders to these compartments have been intentionally abraded and filed down.
Trace of a circular label which once fitted into the circular compartment.Trace of illegible inscription in the circular recess.

Object Condition
Missing: Christ's staff or spade (separately-made piece, possibly of metal). Evidence of this is given by a hole under Christ's left hand, one at the lower edge of the canopy above him, and another one at the foot of the tree.
The raised borders to the compartments on the reverse have been intentionally abraded and filed down.
Hole in background.

Comments
Christ once held a spade or staff.

Provenance
Collection of Gerhard Kunibert Fochem (b. 1771, d. 1847), from 1831 rector of the parish church of Saint Ursula in Cologne; M. van Perys (or van Parys), art dealer, Brussels; Dean William Tuck, art dealer, Leicester Square, London; purchased by the Rev. John Parker in 1834; collection of Mr. Stanley Leighton, Sweeney Hall, Oswestry (d. 1900); purchased by the museum from Mrs. Parker Leighton in 1958.

Bibliography
Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition Held at Shrewsbury, 5-9 October 1896, no. 34.
J. Beckwith, ‘A Rhenish Ivory Noli Me Tangere’, in Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin 11 (1996), pp. 112-116.
Glanz und Grösse des Mittelalters, Kölner Meisterwerk aus den grossen Sammlungen der Welt, ed. by D. Täube and M. Verena Fleck, exhibition catalogue, Cologne, Schnütgen Museum, 4 November 2011-26 February 2012, p. 87 (C.T. Little).
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no.135.