Register 1: seated Joseph (part of a Nativity scene).
Register 2: Virgin holding Christ (part of a Presentation in the Temple scene).
Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 1st third of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French, probably about 1320-30.
Attribution
Unknown
Hinges
Trace of one missing hinge on either side.
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: red (Joseph's headdress) and gold (ghosts of painted trefoils in the spandrels).
Reverse
Flat and smooth.
Object Condition
Missing: upper part of the panel including the gable.
Hinge hole at lower right has been broken.
Provenance
Purchased by the Museum in 1860.
Bibliography
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), no. 6989-60.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 129; II, no. 164.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 48.
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