Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of original (?) polychromy in Virgin's belt buckle and inside of her and Christ's coat. Elsewhere, extensive traces of modern polychromy and gilding (post 18th century).

Reverse
Flat and irregular. Traces of the pulp cavity at the back of Christ.

Object Condition
Missing: flowers on Virgin's crown. Christ's arm original but later reattached. Arms and forearms of the Virgin redone in 1856 by Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, commissioned by Alexis Soltykoff, the object's then owner.
The central part of the ivory seat, made from several pieces of ivory attached together with wooden pegs, is also a later repair, as is the edge of the Virgin's cushion.

Comments
The angels, looking up, would have been placed slightly lower than the central coronation group, as their posture makes clear. It would have been integrated in an architectural setting. The group may have included more figures, including two angels now at the Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp.

Provenance
The central group, was discovered in 1850 by the antiques dealer Vuillermet in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (according to Jean Aubert, in Le Courrier des Alpes, 9-10 March 1885); acquired by Mr. Khune, Genevan merchant; acquired before 1856 by Prince Alexis Soltykoff, Paris: sold, Paris, Drouot, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29 April and 1 May 1861, lot 224bis.(Alternatively, Darcel 1878 claims object originally 'from Savoie', and Molinier 1896 'from Chambéry').

Bibliography
A. Darcel, 'La collection Soltykoff', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, I (1861), pp. 175-176.
A. Sauzay, Musée impérial du Louvre. Catalogue du musée Sauvageot (Paris, 1861), no. 2.
J. Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels au Moyen Age et à l'époque de la Renaissance. Album, I (Paris, 1864), pl. XVI.
H. Havard, Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la décoration depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours (Paris, 1887), III, pl. 1.
L. Gonse, L'Art gothique: l'architecture, la peinture, la sculpture, le décor, (Paris, 1890), p. 240 (& pl. on opposite page).
E. Molinier, 'Un groupe en ivoire du musée du Louvre. Le Couronnement de la Vierge', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts (November 1895), pp. 397-400.
E. Molinier, Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des ivoires (Paris, 1896), no. 50.
E. Molinier, Histoire générale des Arts appliqués à l'Industrie. I: Les Ivoires (Paris, 1896), p. 183, pl. XV.
W. Maskell, Ivories (London, 1905), pl. XXXIX-1.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 170, fig. 112.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 57; II, no. 16; III, pl. VI.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947)pp. 71, 83, 84, pl. XXII.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), pp. 15, 32, figs. 4-5.
Notre-Dame de Paris, 1163-1963, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1963, no. 67.
O. Beigbeder, Les ivoires (Paris, 1965), fig. 19.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen-Âge (Freiburg, 1978), p. 137.
A. Cascio and J. Levy, 'Ivoires gothiques: polychromie originale et repeints', in 12th Triennal Meeting Lyon. 29 aug.-3 sept. 1999 (Comité de l'ICOM pour la conservation), I (1999), pp. 429-433, fig. 4, 5.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Paris ou Amiens? Le groupe de la Vierge Davillier', in Études d'histoire de l'art offertes à Jacques Thirion (Paris, 2001), pp. 92-93, fig. 13.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 99.