Book cover, pair of pierced and carved whalebone panels, formerly attached to the binding of a printed Bible of 1552, English (probably Canterbury), first quarter of the 12th century

Pair of pierced and carved whalebone panels, formerly attached to the binding of a Bible printed in Paris in 1552.
The front piece (8461A-1863) shows a lion in a medallion in the centre. In the corners are four quadrupeds (lion cubs?), each in a segment of a circle connected with the central medallion by diagonals in which are bands of bead-and-leaf ornament. Bead-and-reel ornament fills the borders of the segments and the main border, and the intervening spaces are filled with lush acanthus leaves enlivened with bead decoration.
The back piece (8461B-1863), possibly to be interpreted as The Tree of Life, is filled with a dense design of acanthus foliage branching from a central stem, also with beaded decoration, and has a border of bead-and-reel ornament.

Acquired in 1863. Formerly mounted on the covers of a Bible printed in Paris in 1552 which is now in the National Art Library (Press mark 88.E.23). The covers were removed in 1921.

These panels would have originally formed the front and back covers of a manuscript; it is possible that a gold or silver background highlighted the designs.

Rather similarly treated foliage appears on Lotharingian goldsmith's work of the second half of the twelfth century, though this date appears a little late for the reliefs. The type of foliage ornament and prancing lions have their closest parallels in the crypt capitals at Canterbury Cathedral (especially those illustrated by Zarnecki, 1951, pl. 49) of around 1100-20, where the flattened leaf forms and beading of the panels, ultimately derived from the late Anglo-Saxon 'Winchester acanthus. can be matched exactly.

Dr Otto Pächt has suggested (verbally) that the ornament on these reliefs should be compared to that in the second Winchester Bible (Oxford: Bodleian M.S.Auct.E.inf.1) illuminated at Winchester ca. 1140-1150. parallels are to be found among the interlaced foliated scrolls in the initial on fol. 31. (cf.T.S.R. Boase, English Art 1100-1216, Oxford, 1953, pl.66a) and f.278v. These comparisons suggest that the reliefs are English work of the second quater of the 12th-century. Dr Pächt also suggested the hypothesis that the reliefs were originally the cover of the Shaftesbury Psalter (B.M. M.S. Lansdowne 383).

Elephant and walrus ivory and whalebone are prepared for carving by removing the outer layer, known as the ‘husk’ or ‘cementum’ (see below). The tusk is then sawn into the appropriate shape for a figure or relief. The carver uses small knives, chisels, gouges and files, very similar to those used for wood carving. After polishing, ivory can be stained or partially painted or gilded.
These panels are English and probably originate from Canterbury. They were formerly mounted on the covers of a Bible printed in Paris in 1552 which is now in the National Art Library (Press mark 88.E.23). The covers were removed from there in 1921.
The type of foliage ornament and prancing lions have their closest parallels in the crypt capitals at Canterbury Cathedral of around 1100-20, where the flattened leaf forms and beading of the panels, ultimately derived from the late Anglo-Saxon 'Winchester acanthus. can be matched exactly.

8461A&B-1863