Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds. Two angels swinging censers in the upper spandrels; musician shepherd holding a trumpet; two angels supporting the frame in the lower spandrels.
In a quatrefoil enclosed in a diamond. Pointed trefoils.
Randall 1993 and Museum's opinion 2011: England, 2nd quarter of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges on the right side.
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy.
Reverse
Flat and smooth with some scoring.
Object Condition
Drilled central hole in the upper part of the panel.
Missing: lower right corner.
Part of the carving along the left side has been shaved.
Comments
The right wing of this diptych is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington (1929.8.240.12). See related object.
Provenance
Collection of Charles Fairfax-Murray (b. 1849, d. 1919): his bequest to the Museum in 1917.
Bibliography
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), pp. 70-71, fig. 10, in relation to no. 62 (other wing).
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 66, in relation to no. 7.
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