Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's arm; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet; saint John the Evangelist; angels holding the sun and moon; titulus; clouds.
Williamson and Davies 2014: probably French, c. 1300
Attribution
Unknown
Hinges
Traces of two missing ring hinges on the right side.
Polychromy - Gilding
Faint traces of gilding or polychromy: halos of Virgin and saint John.
Reverse
Flat and smooth. Longer edges slightly chamfered.
Label with inscription: 'In Affectionate Remembrance of Ellen Stanley, Who departed this life July 19, 1886. Aged 63 Years' (it is not known how the ivory relates to her).
Object Condition
Missing: hands of the angel on the right side; hands of the man holding pincers (Nicodemus) and part of the pincers, moon held by the angel on right hand side.
Two small holes pierced next to the Virgin's and saint John the Evangelist's heads.
Worn.
Provenance
Collection of Canon Lewis Gilbertson of Bedford Square (d. 1940), Rector of St Martin's Church, Ludgate Hill, London, by 1928; bequeathed by Mrs. Edith Gilbertson (d. 1940) in memory of her husband in 1940.
Bibliography
M. H. Longhurst, 'Some war-time additions to the ivory collections at South Kensington,' in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. LXXXIX, (1941), pp. 25.
D. A. Porter, Ivory Carvings in Later Medieval England 1200-1400 (unpublished PhD thesis, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1974), pp. 111-112 no. 43.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 71.
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