Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges (original).
Reverse
Engraved arms of the Zimmern family on the 14th-century silver frame.
Object Condition
Vertical cracks.
Provenance
Zimmern family (coat of arms on the 14th-century silver frame)(?). Collection of Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol (b. 1529, d. 1595) at Ambras Castle, near Innsbruck; features in the 1596 Ambraser Nachlassinventar Erzherzog Ferdinands II., fol. 444v (Ed. 'Inventar des Nachlasses von Erzherzog Ferdinand II. in Innsbruck (Ruhelust, Alte Burg) und Ambras vom 30. Mai 1596', in Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses in Wien, vol. VII, 2, Reg. 5556, p. CCCIII): 'Mer in ainer lad 2 täfele, von helfenbain geschnüczt, darauf an baiden seiten Zimmerisch und Abenspergisch wappen'; inherited by his son Karl von Burgau; sold in 1605 to Emperor Rudolph II (d. 1612); the collection was brought to Vienna in 1806; together with other imperial collections, it formed the basis of the collection of Sculpture and Decorative Arts of the Kunsthistorisches Museum which opened in 1891.
Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 196, 207, 213; II, no. 491.
C. Theuerkauff, Elfenbein in Klosterneuburg (Klosterneuburg, 1962), p. 62.
Katalog der Sammlung für Plastik und Kunstgewerbe (Vienna, 1964), I. Mittelalter, no. 14.
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