Braunschweig (Brunswick), Kunstmuseum des Landes Niedersachsen, Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum
Side 1: skull (death).
Side 2: head of an old man (Old Age).
Engraved German inscription in Gothic script on a scroll: 'vado mori alle hernach.f.k./mane. thetet phates.1504.'
Museum's opinion 2012: Germany, 1504 (see inscription).
Attribution
Master F. K (?) (see inscription)
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy: red (inscription; old man's mouth).
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Object Condition
Missing: lower jaw of the skull is not original (replaced).
Hole visible at the top of the heads: it is likely this hole runs the whole height of the piece, this, however, cannot be verified because of the modern ivory base affixed to the bottom of the object.
Provenance
Museum founded in 1754 to house the collections of the Dukes of Braunschweig (this piece is mentioned in Inventory H 32 (finished ca. 1798), p. 162, no. 27: 'Kopf eines alten Mannes, woran hinterwärts ein Todtenkopf geschnitzet ist, mit einer eingegrabenen Umschrift').
Bibliography
C. Scherer, Die Braunschweiger Elfenbeinsammlung (Leipzig, 1931), no 16.
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