Attribution
Attributed to the same artist as the Metropolitan Museum Deposition (17.190.199)(Gaborit-Chopin in Paris 1981)

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold (around the neck on the robe of the figure on the left, around her wrist and on her veil), red (inside the veils).

Reverse
Flat with diagonal scoring.
Incised inscription 'VII' on the return of upper moulding on the right side of the tomb.

Object Condition
Seems to have been trimmed at the bottom (about 60-70mm may be missing; see Williamson and Davies 2014). Some traces of burning at the bottom, which may explain why the piece was trimmed. This missing part may have featured a sleeping soldier.
Small losses to the draperies.
Large section through the tomb, up to the right hand-side figure's left shoulder has sheared off and been repaired.

Comments
Formerly part of a larger ensemble, mounted in an architectural setting (Maclagan 1922). The Deposition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (17.190.199) may have been part of the same ensemble (Gaborit-Chopin in Paris 1981).
'The Roman numeral VII incised on it is probably and assembly mark, suggesting that the relief was the seventh in an extended cycle of scenes from the Passion of Christ' (Williamson, in Williamson and Davies 2014).

Provenance
Collection of Henry Harris, London (possibly acquired through a bequest, according to Maclagan 1922); given to the museum by him in 1927 through the National Art Collections Fund, after having been on loan from 1921.

Bibliography
E. Maclagan, 'Notes on the Panels from a Carolingian Ivory Diptych in the Ravenna and South Kensington Museums, and on two Fourteenth-century Ivory Groups, in Antiquaries Journal 2 (1922), pp. 193-203 (pp. 201-203).
The Antiquaries Journal, II (July, 1922), p. 201 ff, fig. 6.
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory, exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1923, no. 91, pl. XXIX.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 142, 144; II, no. 228; III, pl. LX.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Review of the Principal Acquisitions during the years 1911-1938, (London, 1927), p. 6, fig. 2.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), pp. 15-16, pl. XXIV.
Les Fastes du Gothique: le siècle de Charles V, ed. by F. Baron, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1981, no. 138.
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. 21, pp. 152-153.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), p. 365.
Les premiers retables, XIIe-début du XVe siècle : une mise en scène du sacré, edited by Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2009, no. 33.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 34 and p. 133, in relation to no. 41.