Seated Virgin and Child (Virgo lactans); Christ seated the Virgin's left knee; Christ in long robe; crown.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: Eastern France (?), 2nd quarter of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Object Condition
Missing: part of Christ's right hand. This was repaired at some point but has since been lost (crosshatching for fixing is still visible).
Crack across the neck of the Virgin.
The head of the Virgin has been broken at the neck and glued back, and a new section of ivory inserted across the Virgin's throat.
Comments
Underside: crosshatching and three holes for dowels (the large central one still filled with a wooden plug), maybe for a separately-made base.
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, by 1862: 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. 104.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 12.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p.78, no. 205-67.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 246; II, no. 694.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, II (London, 1929), p. 31, pl. XXX.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 10.
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