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Chess piece (Back)

Chess piece (Back)
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Side

Side

Front

Subject
Secular.

Repository Institution
www.salisburymuseum.org.uk

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www.salisburymuseum.org.uk


Salisbury, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum

Inv. iiE25

Walrus ivory

Height: 85mm
Width: 60mm
Depth: 38mm

King on horseback; soldiers with shields.

Saunders 2001: German or Scandinavian, 13th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Nose of king damaged. White residues on some of the foot-soldiers.

Provenance
Found on Ivy street, Salisbury, on 7 January 1846 during the installation of sewers and piped water; purchased by Joseph Mayer, Liverpool, 'who purchased it from Over , who superintended the Salisbury drainage works' (Saunders, p. 16); given to William Blackmore who presented it to the Salisbury Museum (formed with other such salvaged pieces 'the Drainage Collection', which resulted in the foundation of the Salisbury Museum in 1860).

Bibliography
F. Stevens, 'A Medieval Chess Piece Found in Salisbury', in The Antiquaries Journal 13 (1933), pp. 310-312.
A. E. J. Mackett-Beeson, Chessmen (London, 1968), p. 15, fig. 8.
A. MacGregor, Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn. The Technology of Skeletal Materials since the Roman Period (London and Sydney, 1985), p. 139, figs. 71s.
P. R. Saunders, Salisbury Museum Medieval Catalogue Part 3 (Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum Trust, 2001), no. 2, pp. 15-17, fig. 1.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 247.


Image

© Courtesy of Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum.

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