Register 1: Christ displaying his wounds; angels holding Instruments of the Passion; crowned female kneeling figure and male kneeling figure (possibly Virgin and saint John the Baptist).
Register 2: Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds.
London 1923: French, 14th century.
Liverpool Ivories 1954: German?, 2nd half of 14th century.
Gibson 1994 and Museum's opinion 2010: Germany?, 2nd half of the 14th century or 19th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Not recessed (not a writing tablet).
Object Condition
Cracked.
Comments
Angel standing beside the shepherd is unusual (Gibson 1994).
Provenance
Collection of Mr and Mrs Ernest C. Innes (at least 1923-1935): Innes sale, Christie's, London, 12 December 1935, lot 46. E. L. Paget collection: purchased by Philip Nelson at London, Sotheby's, 12 October 1949, lot 62; purchased from the estate of Philip Nelson by Liverpool Public Museums in 1953.
Bibliography
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory, exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1923, no. 119.
Liverpool Ivories: Special Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 1954, no. 56.
M. Gibson, The Liverpool Ivories: late antique and medieval ivory and bone carving in Liverpool Museum and the Walker Art Gallery (London, 1994), no. 37.
P. Rushton, 'A Liverpool Collector, Dr Philip Nelson (1872-1953)', in Apollo (January 2001), pp. 41-48.
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