Central panel from a triptych with the Crucifixion and Virgin and Child, carved walrus ivory with traces of paint, England, ca. 1300

The panel is divided into two compartments, with the Crucified Christ flanked by the Virgin and St John the Evangelist above and the seated Virgin and Child below. Above each scene is a cusped arch with pierced quatrefoils in the spandrels, and there was also a pierced oculus to each side of the upper arch; that on the right side is now missing. There are two recesses on each side, each with two pin holes, which would have held hinge plates to attach wings, now lost. The top, underside and back are entirely plain, with no markings, and the latter displays a wide band of secondary dentine common to walrus ivory.
The ivory is in good condition, with the exception of a large chip to the right of the upper arch and a deep crack at the apex of the lower. A hole drilled diagonally through the top of the panel and exiting through the back was probably made to allow hanging with a cord, in all likelihood after the loss of the wings. There are considerable remains of paint: red on the underside of the arches and on the cross, blue on the flat backgrounds of both scenes. The figures do not appear to have been coloured.

The Rev. Thomas Hugo (1820-76) reported in 1855 (The Archaeological Journal, XII, 1855, p. 88)and again, more fully, in 1860 (Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, I, 1860, p. 134) that the plaque had been 'discovered in Haydon Square, Minories, on the supposed site of the convent of Nuns Minoresses, September 12, 1853'; it presumably passed immediately into his possession and after his death was purchased from his widow in 1877 (£6).
Given its findspot the panel has traditionally been described as English, and the fact that it is carved from walrus ivory further strengthens this case. It takes its form from Northern French triptychs of the second half of the thirteenth century, such as an example in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (museum no WA 1947.191.198). The date of about 1300, arrived at on stylistic and compositional grounds, matches the history of the site where the object was found. The house of the Grace of the Blessed Mary was founded outside of Aldgate, London, in the parish of St Botolph in 1292 by the brother of King Edward I, the Earl of Lancaster (Edmund Crouchback), for enclosed nuns of the order of St Clare. It is possible that the object belonged to one of the inhabitants of this foundation.

Small triptychs carved from ivory and other materials were were popular in the late medieval period. They were particularly suited to the needs of a travelling clientele, who could take these small portable objects with them as aids to prayer.

This panel, carved from walrus ivory and originally at least partially painted, was made in about 1300 in England. It shows the Crucifixion and the Virgin and Child, and once formed the central part of a small winged triptych. The panel was found in London in 1853, at the site of the Abbey of St Clare, and may have belonged to one of the nuns living there.

747-1877