Front cover: saint Laurence holding a gridiron; unidentified bishop saint with mitre and crozier; tonsured male figure 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 male figure 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.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive gilding and polychromy: gold, green, red, black, brown, flesh colour.
Object Condition
Holes at the top of each leaf: may have been used for silk hanging covering and protecting the scenes (Amsterdam 1994).
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London: 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), 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), p. 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.
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, p. 140).
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.
Gotik 3: Geschichte der bildenden Kunst in Deutschland, ed. by B. Klein (Munich, 2007), no. 154, pp. 415-416.
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