Gothic Ivories Project | Box (boîte) (End, right)

Box (boîte) (End, right)

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Lid

Bottom

Interior

Body, front

Body, back

End, left

Lid

Links

Subject
Secular. Hunting scene.

Repository Institution
www.glasgowlife.org.uk

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Glasgow, the Burrell Collection

Inv. 21.19

Bone;metal (fittings);wood (core)

Height: 76mm
Width: 160mm
Depth: 183mm
Weight: 667.5g

Lid
Castle or tower (dome-shaped turreted structure); knight mounting a horse helped by another man wearing an eagle crested helm; birds; two hawks attack a heron and a hare; unidentified coat of arms with three antlers; unidentified coat of arms with two fishes; unidentified coat of arm with rampant lion; unidentified coat of arm with a bend; scroll with engraved inscription: 'mgnam ioe [?]'.
Body, front
Two standing wild men holding clubs; trees.
End, right
Hunter holding a spear; running boar; trees.
Body, back
Hunter on foot; hunter blowing into a horn; two dogs running; trees.
End, left
Gathering of pears (?); man beating the tree to make the fruits fall; female figure collecting the fruits.
Crosshatched background; foliated border.
Formerly with a chequered pattern on the bottom.
In four corners of lid are armorial shields, of which upper two ones.

Glasgow Museums' opinion 2013: probably German (Upper Rhine), 15th-century with 19th-century panels in the lid.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold, green (trees; foliated motif).

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Object Condition
Parts of the original lid are missing and have been replaced with later panels (the foliated border could be original). Chequered pattern on the bottom, still visible on the wood.

Comments
The two upper coats of arms might belong to the Counts of Wurtemberg who, from 1419 to 1480, bore a shield charged with three antlers impaling two fishes addorsed for Mumpelgard (see Beard 1935).

Provenance
Bought by Sir William Burrell from John Hunt (29 July 1935) for £145; given to the City of Glasgow by Sir William and Constance, Lady Burrell, in 1944.

Bibliography
C. R. Beard, 'Heraldry: Arms on a Fifteenth-Century Box', in Connoisseur 96 (October 1935), pp. 238-39.

Image

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