Panel, half of a hinged box, ivory, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin and the death of St Thomas, France (Paris), ca. 1330-1350

Ivory panel used as a cover of a set of writing tablets decorated with carvings depicting the Coronation of the Virgin and the death of St Thomas of Canterbury. The Virgin, seated on a long bench with curved foliated ends, is crowned by Christ; below, St. Thomas, kneeling before the altar, is attacked by three armed knights while his chaplain Grim extends a cross over him. Above each scene are three trefoil arches.
The front of the panel is carved in two stages, each topped with an arcade formed of three arches filled with pointed trefoil tracery. The arcades are supported on either side by slim columns, and a moulding above each is decorated with dots in relief. The upper scene depicts the Coronation of the Virgin, with Christ and the Virgin seated on a long bench which curves upwards at the outer edges and terminates in large trefoil leaves. Christ, crowned and with badly abraded face showing little sign of beard, lowers a crown towards the head of the Virgin, who bows her head towards him and raises her hand sin prayer. The lower scene depicts the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket. The saint, tonsured and wearing a chasuble, kneels before an altar while three knights stand behind him, one of them bringing his sword down on to the saint's skull. The knights wear chain mail with long surcoats. In front of Becket, the chaplain Grim faces the scene, holding a processional cross above Becket's head.

Alfred Williams Hearn Gift

In the possession of Samuel Rush Meyrick, Hertfordshire, by 1857. THen passed to August Meyrick and was on loan to the South Kensington Museum in 1869. Before 1923 in the collection of Alfred Hearn and his widow in Menton. Given by Mrs Hearn in 1923.

Ivory panel used as a cover of a set of writing tablets decorated with carvings depicting the Cornation of the Virgin and the death of St Thomas of Canterbury - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury 1162-1170 until murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. The Virgin, seated on a long bench with curved foliated ends, is crowned by Christ; below, St. Thomas, kneeling before the altar, is attacked by three armed knights while his chaplain Grim extends a cross over him. Above each scene are three trefoil arches. It is said to have been found in Wales.
A number of ivory plaques depict the martyrdom of Thomas Becket. The basic composition of Becket's martyrdom had become set soon after his martyrdom in 1170, on Limoges enamel caskets and elsewhere.
The original use of this hinged box - more a deeply recessed diptych - is unclear. The forms on the back are similar to, but nevertheless different from, a group of boxes soemtimes described as containers for painter's pigments.

A.38-1923