Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Left forearm damaged.

Comments
This piece probably was originally the upper part of an ivory staff which was in the cathedral treasury before the Revolution.
The saint holds a scroll and is accompanied by a lion, as he used to teach the Gospels to wild animals, and he is holding his bowels because he was disemboweled by means of a trident as part of his martyrdom.

Provenance
From 1585, inventories of the Treasury of Saint-Mammès cathedral mention an ivory staff ending in a small effigy of saint Mammès. According to the 1709 inventory, it was used to lead religious processions. It remained in Langres cathedral after the cathedral treasury disappeared in 1793.

Bibliography
Inventaire de 1575 (Inventaire... de tous les sanctuaires, joyaux precieux estans en la chapelle des reliques..., Archives départementales de la Haute-Marne, 2 G 166, f°3 r).
Inventaire de 1709 repris et mis au net en septembre 1739 (Langres, Bibliothèque diocésaine, ms 98, pp. 35-85).
P. Dautrey, 'Les attitudes vis-à-vis du trésor cathédral de Langres d'après les inventaires du XVIIIe siècle', in La Haute-Marne pendant la Révolution, Actes des 10ème Journées d'art et d'histoire, Chaumont, Langres, Saint Dizier, 21-23 April 1989 (Chaumont, 1989), pp. 25-43 (repr. p. 27).
G. Viard, B. Decron, F.-C. Wu, La Cathédrale Saint-Mammès de Langres: histoire, architecture, décor (Langres, 1994), p. 130.
Palissy database: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/dapapal_fr [accessed September 2009].
Base objets mobiliers de la cathédrale de Langres, Direction régionale des affaires culturelles de Champagne-Ardenne: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/champagne-ardenne/objets-mobiliers/haute-marne/cathedrale-langres/HTML5/home-tt.html [accessed August 2012].