Knife handle, ivory, the figures of men and women in niches, French or German, ca. 1320-1340

Carved ivory handle of a knife, slightly curved, and square in section. Each of the four faces is carved with three canopied niches surmounted by crocketed arches and containing standing figures alternately of women holding books and men with clasped hands. The male figures are in hooded robes, their hands clasped before them. The females have their heads covered, holding books or other objects. The male and female figures are posed to face each one another in pairs, as if the male has just given the lady the object she is holding.

Bequeathed by George Salting

In the collection of William Henry Forester Denison, 2nd Baron Londesborough, by 1872 (Chaffers 1872, cat. no. 1203). Londesborough sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 10 July 1888, lot 766 (bought Bourgeois); in the collection of George Salting, London; Salting Bequest, 1910 (no. 1530).

This is a ivory knife handle, made in France or Germany, in about 1320-1340. It was formerly believed to be from a liturgical fan (a flabellum), but the secular decorative scheme does not allow this interpretation, however, and the lack of an adequately secure fitting at the top to hold the fan also precludes such a use.

A.559-1910