Inv. 64679 (Morey A78)
Ivory;gilt copper (volute of the crozier, now removed);bone (piece below the knop of the crozier)
Enthroned bishop with mitre and crozier; blessing gesture; deacon holding a chalice; deacon holding an open book. Interlaced foliated ornament on the back of the throne.
Morey 1936: England (?), 12th-13th century.
Glen 2003: Scotland, mid-13th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round. Interlaced foliated ornament on the back of the throne.
Object Condition
Hole at the front of the bishop's alb where an ornament must have originally been inserted.
Two modern holes on the bottom to attach the piece onto a later pedestal.
Comments
According to Glen (2003), this piece could be part of the same set as another one now in the National Museum of Scotland (L2).
Provenance
Mentioned in the inventory of Clement XIII, pope from 1758 to 1769 (Inv. Clemente XIII, ff. 174v, 177).
Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, no. 28, p. 350.
R. Kanzler, Gli avori dei musei profano e sacro della Biblioteca Vaticana (Rome, 1903), II, no. 30, pl. IX.
A. Goldschmidt, Die Elfenbeinskulpturen, 4 vols (Berlin, 1914-1926), IV (1926), no. 246.
C. R. Morey, Gli oggetti di avorio e di osso del Museo Vaticano (Vatican City, 1936), pp. 74-75, no. A78, pl. XVII.
V. Glenn, Romanesque and Gothic Decorative Metalwork and Ivory Carvings in the Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2003), p. 180.
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