Side 1: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; sun and moon.
Side 2: Standing Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two angels holding candlesticks.
Kneeling angel supporting the volute.
Foliated decoration: vine leaves; human masks around the volute.
Knop with apostles and saints in niches: saint Thomas, saint Paul, saint John the Evangelist, saint Cecilia, saint Peter and saint Bartholomew.
Griggs 1904-1907: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, mid 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French (Paris); the ivory volute either 14th or 19th century, with metalwork added in the mid 19th century, probably copying a crozier in the Musée de Cluny. Radiocarbon dating (2013): 95.4% probability that the elephant died between 1277 and 1390.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive traces of polychromy (green, blue) and gilding (modern).
Reverse
Carved on both sides.
Object Condition
Painted decoration, applied thickly in blue and gold, has been rubbed away in places.
Comments
The crozier is copied after another in the Musée Cluny in Paris. However, the Paris example retains none of the figures under the arcades on the knop, although an engraving executed between 1838 and 1846 offered a reconstruction of their arrangement: the Soltykoff crozier was probably derived from this.
Provenance
Collection of Prince Petr Soltykoff (b. c. 1801, d. 1889): his sale, Paris, Drouot, 8 April 1861, lot 202; bought by John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London: purchased from him by the Museum in 1862.
Bibliography
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), pp. 34-35.
V. Gay, Glossaire archéologique du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance, I (Paris, 1887-1928), p. 507, fig. A.
A. Schnütgen, 'Metallverzierte Elfenbeinkrümme eines gothischen Bischofsstabes', Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, VI, 1893, cols 345-48.
W. W. Watts, Catalogue of Pastoral Staves, Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1924), no.9, pl. 12.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XIX.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), pp. 202-203, pl. XLII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 271-2, II, no. 773.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 35.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 154.
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