Front cover: saint Laurence holding a gridiron; unidentified bishop saint with mitre and crozier; tonsured monk kneeling in donor position.
Pointed trefoils in the spandrels.
Painted scenes inside:
Inside front cover: Last Supper with saint John the Evangelist leaning on Christ's breast; Christ feeding Judas across the table.
f. 1r: Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); Christ restores Malchus' ear, cut by saint Peter; soldier.
f. 1v: Christ before Pilate; soldier.
f. 2r: Christ before Herod; crown and sceptre.
f. 2v: Flagellation; whips.
f. 3r: Pilate washing his hands.
f. 3v: Carrying of the Cross.
f. 4r: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist.
f. 4v: Resurrection with two soldiers asleep.
f. 5r: Holy Face of Christ (Sancta Facies); Alpha and Omega.
f. 5v: Instruments of the Passion: Christ with one of his tormentors; the hand that struck him.
f. 6r: Instruments of the Passion: crown of thorns; Christ's wound; Stephaton's bucket of vinegar; staff with sponge (that was offered to Christ to drink on the cross).
f. 6v: Instruments of the Passion: three nails; pincers (for removing the nails); cloth (with which Christ was blindfolded); thirty pieces of silver (payment of Judas); three bloody footprints (from Christ's journey to Golgotha).
Inside back cover: Instruments of the Passion; stick; whip; ladder; Christ's garment; three dice (with which the soldiers gambled for Christ's seamless garment); spear; Christ's tomb seen from above.
Back cover: Coronation of the Virgin; two angels swinging censers; tonsured monk kneeling in donor position.
Pointed trefoils in the spandrels.
Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 1st third of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
von Philippowich 1961: France, c. 1340.
Williamson 1986: Germany (Lower Rhine or Westphalia), c. 1330-1350.
Lalou 1989: 14th century.
Amsterdam 1994: Germany (Lower Rhine or Westphalia), c. 1330-1350.
Detroit 1997: Germany (Lower Rhine or Westphalia), c. 1330-40.
Williamson and Davies 2014: Germany (probably Cologne), c. 1330-1340.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive gilding and polychromy: gold, green, red, black, brown, flesh colour.
The painting and gilding on the carved panels appears to be largely original, though it may have been refreshed in places.
Reverse
The reverse of the outer tablets is recessed to receive the wax, with a raised border. Inner tablets are recessed on both sides.
Object Condition
Three holes at the top of every second leaf: may have been used for silk hanging covering and protecting the scenes.
Long vertical crack at the top of the second inner leaf.
Comments
'It may be that the paintings inside the booklet were not part of the original commission. The gap between the production of the booklet and its painting need not have been great' (see Davies and Williamson 2014, p. 354).
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London; on loan to the museum from 1867: purchased from him by the Museum in 1872.
Bibliography
List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington, Acquired During the Year 1872, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition (London, c. 1872), p. 11.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 194, 198, 207, 210, II, no. 526, III, pl. XCIV.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), pp. 24-25, fig. 3, pl. XIX.
R. Berliner, 'Arma Christi', in Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 3rd series, 6 (1955), p. 51, figs. 6-7.
K. Martin, 'Zur oberrheinischen Malerei im beginnenden 14. Jahrhundert', in Eberhard Hanfstaengl zum 75. Geburtstag', ed. by E. Ruhmer (Munich, 1961), pp. 11, 17, fig. 6.
E. von Philippowich, Elfenbein (Brunswick, 1961), pp. 71-72, fig. 56a.
H. Wentzel, 'Ein Elfenbeinbüchlein zur Passionandacht', in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch XXIV (1962), pp. 193-212.
O. Beigbeder, Ivory (New York, 1965), p. 59, figs 52-53.
R. Büll, Vom Wachs. Hoechster Beiträge zur kenntnis der Wachse, Band I, Beitrag 9, (Frankfurt, 1968), pp. 852-853.
G. Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, 2 vols (London, 1972), II, p. 192, fig. 654.
W. Wixom, 'Twelve Additions of the Medieval Treasury', in Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59 (April 1972), pp. 96-99, figs. 25-26.
Les Fastes du Gothique: le siècle de Charles V, ed. by F. Baron, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1981, p. 195.
The Medieval Treasury: the Art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. by P. Williamson (London, 1986), pp. 212-213, pl. 21.
J. Hamburger, 'The Use of Images in the Pastoral Care of Nuns: The Case of Heinrich Suso and the Dominicans', in Art Bulletin 71, no. 1 (1989), p. 30, figs. 4-5
E. Lalou, 'Les tablettes de cire médiévales', in Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 147 (1989), pp. 123-140 (no. 17, pp. 129, 130 and 140).
Avori bizantini e medievali nel museo nazionale di Ravenna, ed. by L. Martini and C. Rizzardi (Ravenna, 1990), p. 92.
H. van Os, The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1994, pp. 114-115, 182, no. and pl. 35.
J. Oliver, 'The Walters Homilary and Westphalian Manuscripts', in Journal of the Walkers Art Gallery, LIV (1996), p. 74, fig. 10.
J. Hamburger, '"Frequentant Memoriam Visionis Faciei Meae" : Image and Imitation in the Devotions to the Veronica Attributed to Gertrude of Helfta', in The Holy Face and the Paradox of Representation: Papers from a Colloquium at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome and the Villa Spelman, Florence, 1996, ed. by H. Kessler and G. Wolf (Bologna, 1998), p. 239, fig. 7.
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. 40, pp. 193-197.
J. Hamburger, The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany (New York, 1998), pp. 209, 340, figs. 4.3, 4.4, 7.24.
A. Sturgis, The Image of Christ, exhibition catalogue, London, National Gallery, 2000, cat. no. 61.
J. Tripps, ‘Bilder und private Devotion’, in Bildersturm. Wahnsinn oder Gottes Wille?, ed. by C. Dupeux, et al., exhibition catalogue, Bern, Bernisches Historisches Museum and Strasburg, Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame, 2000, pp. 40-41.
B. Bousmanne, 'A propos d'un carnet à écrire en ivoire du 14e siècle conservé à la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique', in Als Ich can. Liber Amicorum in Memory of Prof. Dr. Maurits Smeyers (Paris-Leuven-Dudley, MA, 2002), pp. 165-202 (pp. 181-82, 188-89).
Gotik 3: Geschichte der bildenden Kunst in Deutschland, ed. by B. Klein (Munich, 2007), no. 154, pp. 415-416.
Medieval and Renaissance Art. People and Possessions, ed. by G. Davies and K. Kennedy (London, 2009), p. 209, fig. 164.
C. Hourihane, Insights and Interpretations. Studies in Celebration of the Eighty-Fifth Anniversary of the Index of Christian Art, (Princeton, New Jersey, 2009), p. 300, fig. 146.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, ‘Gothic Ivories: realities and prospects’, in Gothic Art and Thought in the Later Medieval period. Essays in Honour of Willibald Sauerlander, ed. by C. Hourihane (Princeton, 2011), p. 162.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 121.
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