Elfenbein Nr. 1 (lost)
Ivory;gilt silver;enamel (coats of arms of Oldenburg, Brandenburg, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland)
Side 1: Knight on horseback; knight in armour fighting a winged dragon; lion; birds in trees; hunters on horseback; hunter with a hawk on his wrist; dogs; stags; crossbow; hunter spearing a wild animal (wolf?).
Side 2: Knight on horseback; knight in armour fighting a dragon (possibly saint George and the dragon); three figures with hands joined watching from the castle battlements; flower; tournament; five figures including a queen observing the jousting knights in armour from a covered balcony with three arches; two pairs of jousting knights; shields.
Foliated decoration; interlace patterns.
Koechlin 1924: Scandinavian, 15th century.
Däberitz, Bajorat and Wilfroth 1997: 1450-1459.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Comments
This oliphant was made of 4 plaques of ivory, with a metal mount with intricate decoration.
Provenance
Christian I of Oldenburg, king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (r. 1448-1481)(his coat of arms). Found in Campania, near Nola, Koechlin suggests it may have been lost by him during a pilgrimage he made in Italy. Collection of Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha (in 1924); unlocated since WWII.
Bibliography
Bock, Jagdhorn in Elfenbein (Cologne: Organ für Christliche Kunst, 1849), p. 99.
C. Aldenhoven, Inventar der Gothaer Kunstkammer (Gotha, 1858), I.
C. Aldenhoven, Katalog der Herzoglichen Gemäldegalerie (Herzogliches Museum zu Gotha)(Gotha, 1890), Elfenbein Nr. 1.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 459; III, no. 1248A, pl. CCVI.
W. Topić-Mersmann, Gotički Lovački rog od Morževe kljove - Ein gotisches Jagdhorn aus Walrosszahn, Studije Muzeja Mimara 5 (Zagreb, 1990), p. 8, fig. 12.
U. Däberitz, I. Bajorat, R. Wilfroth, Verlustdokumentation der Gothaer Kunstsammlungen, I: Die Kunsthandwerklichen Sammlungen (Gotha, 1997), no. 116 (said to have been transferred after WWII to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, but this piece is not today in Nuremberg).
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