Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled triptych, with arches (colonnettes) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: angel holding the Sun.
Register 2: Annunciation; vase of lilies; dove of the Holy Spirit.
Register 3: Adoring Magi (part of the Adoration of the Magi).
Centre panel
Standing Virgin and Child; Christ holding a fruit in his left hand; Christ pulling the front of the Virgin's veil; Virgin holding a stem of flowers in her right hand; angel crowning the Virgin.
Wing, right
Register 1: angel holding the Moon.
Register 2: Nativity with Joseph; Annunciation to the Shepherds.
Register 3: Presentation in the Temple with the Virgin holding Christ.
Rosettes in the spandrels. Empty niches on either side of the centre panel.

Griggs 1904-1907: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: French, 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France, middle of 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Three later hinges on either side. Originally long 'straw hinges', set in shallow recesses and riveted to the ivory in three places on each side.

Polychromy - Gilding
The back of the centre panel has the trace of a painted figure with a halo (saint or Christ?) standing below a trefoil arch supported by colonnettes. Very faint remains of painted tracery also survive in the upper parts of the wings.
Traces of gold rosettes on the background of the left wing.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Trace of a painted figure with a halo (saint or Christ?) standing below a trefoil arch supported by colonnettes. Very faint remains of tracery also survive in the upper parts of the wings.
Two holes in the underside of the centre panel and crosshatching.

Object Condition
Missing: upper part of the central gable and of two pinnacles on either side (originally made of different pieces of ivory, as is indicated by crosshatching and holes); upper part of the gables of both wings (no crosshatching but they were also probably glued on); part of the background of the centre panel to the right of the Virgin and Child (repaired; see view of the back); part of the lower edge of the centre panel; apex of the central arch (repaired).
No restoration to the figures (unlike Koechlin's opinion that the right hand of the Virgin and tip of the Virgin's right foot had been recarved).

Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London (not displayed with the other Webb ivories at the 1862 London exhibition, so presumably acquired by him betwee 1862 and 1866): purchased from him by the Museum in 1866.

Bibliography
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 18.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 58, with ill.
H. Semper, 'Über eine besondere Gruppe elfenbeinerner Klappaltärchen des XIV Jahrhunderts', in Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst 11 (1898), cols 136, 188.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXIX.
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ateliers d'ivoiriers français aux XIII et XIVe siècles. II. L'atelier des tabernacles de la Vierge', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 34 (1905), pp. 453-471 (pp. 459, 462).
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), p. 165, pl. XXXIII.
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), p. 95.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 124, 125; II, no. 131; III, pl. XXXVI.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 12, pl. VII.
P. Williamson, 'Medieval Ivory Carvings in the Wernher Collection', in Apollo (May 2002), pp. 17-22 (p. 21, n. 11).
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 63.

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