Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled polyptych, with arches (tabernacle) (Front)

Height: 189mm (centre)
Width: 46mm (centre); 145mm (open)
Depth: 21mm (centre); 5mm (wings)

Wings, left
Register 1: Annunciation.
Register 2: Adoring Magi (part of Adoration of the Magi continued on centre piece).
Centre
Standing Virgin and Child; Virgin holding a flower in her right hand; Christ in long robe; Christ on left arm; Christ holding a fruit in his left hand.
Wings, right
Register 1: Nativity with Joseph holding Christ.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple.
Colonnettes.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two sets of two modern hinges on either side. Two of the hinges on the right are broken and the right wing is therefore not attached anymore to the centre panel.

Polychromy - Gilding
Black substance used for the eyes.

Reverse
Flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Base of the centre piece crosshatched and with two central drilled holes, certainly to attach it to a base.
Four holes drilled vertically at the top of the centre piece where pinnacles were certainly originally fitted in. The right wing is completely detached, as its hinges are broken.

Provenance
Property of John Turner, of Chesterfield, in 1786. Collection of Lady Heathcote in 1955. Anonymous loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum since 1969.

Bibliography
Gentleman's Magazine 56 (1786), part 2, p. 825, ill.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 44.

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