Attack on the Castle of Love; knights in armour assaulting the castle; ladies throwing roses on the attackers; winged God of Love aiming his bow and arrow; two heralds in trees blowing trumpets; knights in armour fighting with swords; knight with a club; knight lifting his helmet; shields; horses; portcullis; window with tracery.
Corner terminals: four lions.
Westwood 1876 and Griggs 1904-1907: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (Paris), 2nd quarter of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror.
Object Condition
The upper left and lower right lions are cut from a separate piece of ivory and are later repairs (before 1838-46, as they feature in Du Sommerard's plate).
Hole in the centre of each of the sides between the lions.
Rim chipped in places. Vertical crack from the bottom edge to the centre.
Comments
May form a pair with another piece in the Musée du Louvre (OA 6933).
The deep edge of the mirror back is angled from front and back to form a channel, and in the centre at the top is a rosette with a hole at its centre, possibly for a hook or clasp.
Provenance
Préaux collection, Paris (by sometime between 1838 and 1846): his sale, Paris, 9-11 January 1850, lot 147; bought by Rarent. Collection of Prince Petr Soltykoff (b. c. 1801, d. 1889): sale, Paris, Drouot, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29 April and 1 May 1861, lot 355; purchased by Jacob. Collection of Henry Farrer, London: his sale, Christie's, London, 13 June 1866, lot 328; on loan to the museum from 1867 and purchased from John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, in 1872.
Bibliography
A. Du Sommerard, Les Arts du Moyen Âge (Paris, 1838-46), album: 5th series, pl. XI (mirror image).
List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington, Acquired During the Year 1872, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition (London, 1872?), p. 1.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 146.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 842 ('58.200).
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXVIII
A. Michel, L'histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, 8 vols, 17 parts (Paris, 1905-1929), II, pt. 1, p. 494.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 406, 408; II, no. 1092; III, pl. CLXXXVI.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), pp. 48-9, pl. XLIV.
D. J. A. Ross, 'Allegory and Romance on a Mediaeval French Marriage Casket', in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 11 (1948), pp. 112-142, pl. 31a
O. Beigbeder, Ivory (New York, 1965), p. 46. fig. 48.
The Wild Man. Medieval Myth and Symbolism, ed. by T. Husband, exhibition catalogue, New York, The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980-1981, no. 12.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by P. Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, p. 79, note 6.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), p. 438.
The Making of Sculpture. The Materials and Techniques of European Sculpture, ed. by M. Trusted (London, 2007), p. 119. pl. 216.
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), pp. 292, 296-97.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 203; see also no. 204.
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