Wooden case with bone plates carved in bas-relief, decorated with holy figures and biblical scenes highlighted in red. The lid features six plates in two registers representing St. John the Baptist, the Virgin and Child, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Barbara, St. Anthony and St. Margaret, surrounded by a foliage scroll. On the front, St. Peter and St. Paul, and on the sides, the Adoration of the Magi, the Annunciation and the Trinity. The underside features an ebony and bone checkerboard. Brass hinge and rings.
Southern Netherlands, Flanders, 1440-1470 (small accidents, slight damage and restorations)
H. 8.2 cm - W. 14.2 cm - D. 18 cm
This box belongs to a production well-studied by art historians, who attribute it to Flanders, perhaps to a Bruges workshop. They are built in the same way, with a checkerboard on the reverse, reminiscent of a game box containing pawns that can be turned over to play. Some of them have a domed lid, making it impossible to use the underside. Paul Williamson believes that this type of box would have been a court or wedding gift, sometimes with a coat of arms on the front.
Book consulted: Paul Williamson, The Wyvern collection, Medieval and later ivory carvings and small sculpture, London, 2019, pp290-291
Expert: Mr. Benoît BERTRAND
Provenance : A château in Languedoc
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