Inv. 408
Elopement; lady and youth on horseback; bridge; couple in a boat; youth chucking his lover under the chin; servant rowing; courting couples (meeting of lovers); offering of a chaplet on the castle battlements; offering of a flower. Tournament; ladies and youths observing the jousting knights in armour from the castle battlements; queen holding a dog; youth with a hawk on his wrist; couple embracing; two heralds in trees blowing trumpets; shields. Attack on the Castle of Love; knights in armour assaulting the castle; ladies throwing roses on the attackers; ladder; catapult to throw baskets of roses.
Towers. Brickwork.
Westwood 1876: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Belot 1995: France, 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Wooden plaque affixed to the back.
Object Condition
Holes for lost fittings, including two holes in the middle for the lost handle.
Missing: upper right corner.
Comments
The treatment of the border seems to indicate that it once was fitted in a metal frame (Koechlin 1924 and Belot 1995). Marmin-Pamart, in his 1835 presentation argued that each scene represented an episode in the history of the counts of Boulogne (see Marmin-Pamart 1835 and Belot 1995).
Provenance
Acquired through Demarle by the Museum in 1826 (estimated value at the time: 12,000 francs).
Bibliography
Marmin-Pamart, 'Dissertation sur un bas-relief du Moyen Age', in Procès-verbal de la séance de la Société d'agriculture et des arts de Boulogne-sur-Mer (Boulogne, 1835).
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 687 ('54.82).
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 390, 489, 490, 508, 522; II, no. CCXXI.
'Quelques antiquités du Musée municipal de Boulogne-sur-mer', in L'Illustration (1931), p. tbc.
A. Notter, Image et geste au Moyen Age, exhibition catalogue, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts, April-June 1993, p. 46, fig. 52.
E. Belot, 'L'Ivoire gothique à scènes courtoises de la collection d'archéologie médiévale: cet obscur objet du désir', in Bononia, Revue de l'association des amis des musées de Boulogne-sur-mer 26 (1st semester 1995), pp. 5-19.
Crécy et son époque: 1346-1996, 650ème anniversaire de la bataille, exhibition catalogue, Saint-Riquier, Musée départemental de l'abbaye de Saint-Riquier, June- September 1996, p. 18.
R. H. Randall Jr., 'Games on a Medieval Ivory', in Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, 56 (1997), pp. 3-9, (p. 8).
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 227.
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