Gothic Ivories Project | Comb (peigne double) (Side 1)

Side 1
Courting couples (meeting of lovers); couple embracing; couple kissing; female musician playing a psaltery; female musician with plaited hair playing a portable organ; male musician playing a string instrument (lute); offering of a flower; queens; couple embracing.
Side 2
Female musician playing a drum (tambourine); couple embracing; lady holding a belt (?); male musician playing the recorder; lady embracing a naked, blindfolded crowned man, while reaching towards another man; female musician playing the violin; offering of flowers; two ladies holding hands.

Griggs 1904-1907: Italy, 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: Italy (North), end of the 14th century or beginning of the 15th century.
London 2006: Northern Italy, c. 1400.
Williamson and Davies 2014: Italy (Venice). c. 1400.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy: green (hair; crowns). Traces in the background.
See earlier photographs for more extant polychromy.

Reverse
Carved on both sides.

Object Condition
Ends of two thin teeth chipped.

Provenance
Collection of Prince Petr Soltykoff (b. c. 1801, d. 1889): sold, Paris, Drouot, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29 April and 1 May 1861, lot 366; bought at this sale by John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London; purchased from him by the Museum in 1867.

Bibliography
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862..., revised edition, exhibition catalogue (London, 1863), no. 144.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), II, p. 55.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 86.
G. Semper, Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg, III, vol. 40 (1896), p. 176, no. x.6.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XVI.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), p. 236, pl. L.
F. Winter, Die Kämmer aller Zeiten (1906), pl. 38, no. 122.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 68, pl. LVI.
Depth of Field: the Place of Relief in the Time of Donatello, ed. by P. Curtis, exhibition catalogue, Leeds, Henry Moore Institute, 23 September 2004-27 March 2005, no. 13, p. 79.
At Home in Renaissance Italy, ed. by M. Ajmar-Wollheim and F. Dennis, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 5 October 2006-7 January 2007, no. 191, pp. 180-181, 364, pl. 13.9.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 210.

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