Register 1: Saint Catherine of Alexandria with wheel and martyr's palm; saint Margaret emerging from the dragon, holding a crucifix.
Register 2: Annunciation; vase of lilies.
Register 3: Standing magus (part of Adoration of the Magi); attendant with horses; whip.
Dalton 1909: French, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: French, mid 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: French or English (?), mid 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges on the right side.
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding in the background and details of figures. Traces of black polychromy in the architecture and feet of the figures.
Reverse
Flat and smooth. Label with modern red inscription: SLOANE COLL. 1879.
Pencil inscription: '12'.
Object Condition
Missing: gable.
Hole in the tracery of the left arch on the second register.
Comments
Entry from Hans Sloane's manuscript Catalogue of Miscellanea, British Museum acquisition catalogue: 'Sevll. religious figures carvd in ivory in sevll compartmts. in a long plate likely belonging to some chappel'. This piece would have formed the outer wing of a tabernacle.
Provenance
Collection of Sir Hans Sloane (b. 1660, d. 1753): donated to the British Museum in 1753.
Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 267.
R. Koechlin, 'Ivoires gothiques connus antérieurement au XIXe siècle', in Revue de l'art chrétien 59 (1911), p. 288.
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ivoires gothiques français connus antérieurement au XIXe siècle', in Revue de l'Art Chrétien 41 (1911), pp. 281-292, fig. 5.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 133, 135; II, no. 181.
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