Annunciation; vase of lilies; dove of the Holy Spirit; Virgin with hands crossed on her chest.
Crosshatched background. Foliated border; flowers.
Carved inscription around the border: 'MATER DEI' ('Mother of God').
Dalton 1909: Flemish, 15th century.
Koechlin 1924: French, end of 15th century.
Museum's opinion 2010: Flemish or Northern French, 15th century.
Warren 2014: Northern Netherlands, mid 15th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy: green.
Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror. Paper label with ink inscription: 'Purchased by the Revd J. C. Jackson of 'margetts' the church furniture carver of Oxford, who bought if of the man who found it, in digging the foundations for the new buildings at New Inn Hall'.
Object Condition
Chipped around the edge.
Provenance
Found or excavated at New Inn Hall, Oxford. Collection of Reverend J. C. Jackson. Collection of William Burges (b. 1827, d. 1881): donated by him to the museum in 1879.
Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 386, Pl. LXXIII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 345; II, no. 966; III, pl. CLXIX
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. 599, fig. 226, in relation to no. 181.
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.
