Gothic Ivories Project | Casket (coffret; frise d'arcatures) (Body, front)

Lid
Courting couple (meeting of lover); lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet; courting couple, lady holding a chaplet; offering of the heart.
Body, front
Lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet; youth chucking his lover under the chin; courting couples; lady holding a chaplet.
End, right
Hawking party; lady and youth hawking on horseback; youth with a hawk on his wrist; hunter on foot with a spear.
Body, back
Lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet; youth chucking his lover under the chin; couples embracing; horse; lady holding a chaplet.
End, left
Offering of the heart (?); couple embracing; trees.
Pointed trefoils.

Leeds 1868: 15th century.
London 1967: French, 14th century.
Lowden 2013: North French, c. 1300-1350.

Attribution
Unknown

Object Condition
Cracks on the lower part of the left base panel and the upper part of the two left scenes on the back plaque.
Lock detached and stored inside the casket.

Comments
The setting of the gilt metal and boxwood is apparently original.

Provenance
Collection of Prince Petr Soltykoff: sold, Paris, Drouot, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29 April and 1 May 1861, lot 339: sold to art dealer John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), according to annotated copies of the catalogue kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Thomas Gambier Parry, Highnam Court (Gloucestershire)(d. 1888): before 1875 (mentioned in 1875 catalogue); Sir Hubert Parry (d. 1918), his eldest son (from 1888); Ernest Gambier-Parry (d. 1936), half-brother of Hubert (from 1918); Mark Gambier-Parry (d. 1966), youngest son of Ernest (from 1936); bequeathed to the Courtauld Institute Galleries in 1966.

Bibliography
National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds, exhibition catalogue, Leeds, 1868, no. 684.
The Gambier-Parry Collection. Provisional Catalogue (London, 1967), no. 10.
General Catalogue of the Courtauld Institute Galleries (London, 1979), no. 93.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), no. 15, pp. 92-95.

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