Register 1: knights in armour on horseback.
Register 2: knights in armour holding spears, shields and swords.
Register 3: knight asleep with helmet to one side.
Corner terminals: remains of lions (paw and tail).
Dalton 1909: French, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: French, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Jones 1990: 1st half of the 19th century.
Detroit 1997: French (Paris?), c. 1350-1400 or c. 1800-1850. Radiocarbon dating: 1160-1300 (95% confidence). Randall and Blair: repertory of helmets anachronistic for the period.
Museum's opinion 2011: French, early 19th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Turned with a depression for the (missing) mirror. Incised crosses and circles.
Object Condition
Missing: left side.
Provenance
A. C. Kirkmann Esq. collection (in 1850). Collection of F. G. Smith, 46 Parliament St., London; purchased by the museum 1902.
Bibliography
A. C. Kirkmann, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 6 (1851), pp. 123-4.
C. H. Read, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, second series, XIX (1902), p. 44.
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum, London, 1909, no. 380.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 395; II, no. 1066; III, pl. CLXXXIII.
Fake? The Art of Deception, ed. by M. Jones, exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 1990, no. 193, p. 182.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, no. 80, p. 280.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 202.
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