Gothic Ivories Project | Casket (coffret)

Legend of saint Eustace
Lid
Register 1: Eustace refuses to worship pagan statues; Eustace kneels in prayer before the blessing hand of God; Hadrian worships idols; king. Hadrian orders saint Eustace and his family to be burnt alive in a brazen bull (ox); executioner with winged hat; martyrdom of saint Eustace. Soul of the martyred saint carried to heaven by two angels.
Register 2: Hadrian invites Eustace for a meal to celebrate his victory in battle (see next scene). Battle; knights in armour on horseback; helms; shields. Unidentified scene: saint Eustace and his wife (?); bowl.
Body, front
Saint Eustace hunting on horseback; saint blowing into a horn; running dog. Vision of saint Eustace (conversion of saint Eustace); saint Eustace kneeling in prayer; head of Christ between the stag's antlers; dog biting the stag; tree. Eustace converts his wife (Theospita or Theopista).
End, right
Saint Eustace and his wife performing an act of charity: distributing alms and clothes to the poor; man on crutches; basket. Baptism of saint Eustace and his family; bishop with mitre and crozier.
Body, back
Saint Eustace and his family (wife and two sons). The sea voyage of saint Eustace and his family; the captain of the boat leaving with Eustace's wife by way of payment for the journey. One of Eustace's sons is seized by a lion; shepherd coming to the rescue.
End, left
Saint Eustace crossing a river; Eustace's second son is seized by a wolf; shepherd and peasants coming to the rescue; shepherd brandishing a staff to chase the wolf; saint Eustace works in the fields for the next 15 years; wheat field; spear.

Koechlin 1924: French, beginning of the 14th century.
Randall 1993: French (Paris), 1325-1350.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Comments
The story is taken from the Golden Legend: it starts on the front of the casket, goes around and ends on the lid. The scenes on the lid start at bottom right and end with the scene at top right.
The lock has the coat of arms of royal prince of England: 1 and 4 azure semé de fleur-de-lys, 2 and 3 gules, three lions passants.

Provenance
Collection of the British royal family (coat of arms on the lock). Collection of Henry Stuart, cardinal of York (before 1807); collection of the dowager duchess of Cleveland (in 1807). Hollingworth Magniac collection, Coleworth House, Bedfordshire (before 1857-1892): his sale, Christie, Manion and Woods, London, 2 and 4 July 1892, lot 258. Collection of Lord Astor of Hever: Hever Castle sale, Sotheby's, London, 5 May 1983, lot 230. New York, private collection (in 1993).

Bibliography
Art Treasures exhibition, Manchester, 1857 (label).
Leroux de Lincy, 'L'Exposition de Manchester', in Revue contemporaine 34 (1857), p. 349.
J. Skelton and W. H. St John Hope, The Royal House of Stuart (London, 1890), no. 40.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 154, 178, 427, 459, 473; II, no. 255; III, pl. LXV.
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), no. 180.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 168 and no. 250.

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