Courting couple (meeting of lovers); youth chucking his lover under the chin; lady holding a dog; trees.
Corner terminals: four crouching monsters.
Dalton 1909: French, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: French, 1st half of 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: French, early 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Turned with a depression for the (missing) mirror. Partly erased ink inscription: 'Trouvé le 30 [...] 1840 dans [...]'.
Object Condition
Missing: lower left corner including monster and border.
Large central hole drilled in the upper part.
The left side is broken but has been put back into place (four holes on either side of the break for an earlier repair).
Provenance
Possibly found in 1840. Collection of William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890); bought from him by the British Museum in 1856.
Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 374, Pl. LXXXVIII.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 210.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 376, 377; II, no. 989.
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, p. 566, in relation to no. 163.
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