Crozier head ('The Wingfield-Digby Crozier'), carved walrus ivory with bone additions and traces of gilding, Norway (probably Trondheim), late 14th century

The pierced volute is carved wit a dense spiral of foliate shoots terminating in fleshy leaves with beaded veins; the repeating beaded foliate decoration of the stem, although similar, makes more use of the acanthus and blossom types. On one side is the standing figure of St Olav, readily identifiable by his attributes of axe, orb and crown. On the other side, carved back-to-back with St Olav is a standing bishop saint, wearing mitre, chasuble and dalmatic and blessing with his gloved right hand; in his left hand he holds a crozier, the crook of which has been restored.

The crozier head is constructed of two pieces of walrus ivory joined together diagonally across the volute, the line running directly through the two standing figures; unlike elephant ivory, walrus tusks were not of sufficient width to allow the carving of a normal-sized volute with one piece. It is not clear how the two sections are attached to one another, although bone pegs and animal glue were probably used. Thin slivers of bone have been used to fill the narrow gaps at the bottom between the two sections. These are probably of later date, made following contraction, as is the larger, leaf-like flat piece of bone on the top surface of the volute which masks the point where the two sections join. More noticeable than the fills on each side of the crozier are the lighter-coloured restorations in bone of significant areas of the leaves and foliate shoots: on the side with St Olav these are mostly confined to the space between the volute and and the stem (but also including a leaf adjacent to his axe blade). On the other side there are also several bone restorations of leaves and shoots between the volute and stem on the right, and the bishop's crook and leaves to its right have been replaced, the former anachronistically. A further single leaf at the bottom left on this side is also a restoration. Much of the carving has been enlivened with gilding, including the buds, berries and fruits of the plants, the beading on the shoots, the crown of St Olav and the mitre of the bishp saint.

The dowel which would have attached the crozier head to the shaft is unusually carved integrally with the stem, unlike the French examples. There is also a very pronounced curve to the stem when viewed side-on, due no doubt to the properties of the walrus tusk, giving the crozier an irregular, more organic appearance than the flatter croziers in elephant ivory.

Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax

In the possession of the Wingfield-Digby family at Sherborne Castle, Dorset, since at least the seventeenth century. According to tradition, passed on by Lt.-Col. F.J.B. Wingfield-Digby, DSO, in 1930, the crozier head was said to have been brought over from Ireland and to have belonged to the Right Revd Essex Digby, Bishop of Dromore (d. 1683) or to his son Simon Digby, Bishop of Elphin (d. 1720). On loan to the V&A, 1930-2002; accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax (estate of S. Wingfield-Digby) and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2002.

The crozier is a unique survival, but the subject matter, style and material point unequivocally to a place of production in Scandinavia. While St Olav was a saint popular elsewhere in Northern Europe in the later Middle Ages, his celebrity was most marked in Norway. King of that country from 1016 to 1028, and responsible for introducing Christianity to his kingdom, he died in battle in 1030 and was canonised in 1164. The archbishop of Trondheim - the medieval Nidaros - at that time was Eystein Erlendsson (1161-88), who was later responsible for starting the buildig of the Octacgon at the east end of the cathedral to hold the saint's shrine (and was himself declared a saint by the Norwegian Synod in 1229). It is thus probable that the figure on the reverse of the crozier is Eystein and that the crozier originally belonged to a later archbishop of Trondheim (see Williamson and Davies 2014, p. 443). Archbishop Vinald Henriksson (1387-1402) has been suggested as the commissioner of the crozier, but this must remain a conjecture (Andersen 1997, p. 56). An alternative identification of the standing bishop on the crozier as St Thorlak of Icelend is unsupported by historical or art-historical evidence (Guðmudsson 1990).

The style of the figure of St Olav, most especially the head with its bifurcate beard and tall crown does not allow a dating before the end of the fourteenth century. It can be compared, for example, with the English stone kings from Westminster Hall of about 1385-95 and other images of that date (see Williamson and Davies 2014, p. 443). The decorative repertory of the foliate designs, on the other hand, is looking back to English twelfth-century prototypes such as for example the Winchester Psalter. This idiosyncratic combination is in itself indicative of a Norwegian origin (Berg 1957). The only remotely comparable crozier head is an earlier example in elephant ivory from Løgumkloster in Sønderjylland (now Copenhagen, Nationalmuseet), and it is probable that both croziers were made in Norway, most likely in Trondheim.

A crozier, or pastoral staff, was carried by bishops, abbots and abbesses (and occasionally by other senior ecclesiastics) as a symbol of authority and pastoral care.

This head of a crozier, or pastoral staff, was made in Norway in the late fourteenth century. The piece is carved from two pieces of walrus ivory with some later additions in bone and is partially gilded. The crozier is lavishly decorated with spirals of foliage. On one side it shows the figure of St Olav entwined within the leaves. He can be identified by his attributes of axe, orb and crown. On the other side, there is an unidentified standing bishop saint wearing mitre, chasuble and dalmatic. He is blessing with his gloved right hand and holds a crozier in his left.

The crozier head is a unique survival, but its subject matter, style and material all point to a place of production in Scandinavia. Although St Olav was a saint popular throughout Northern Europe, his celebrity was most marked in Norway. The style of the figure, most especially the head with its distinctive beard and tall crown point towards a date of the end of the fourteenth century, while the foliate designs look back to Romanesque ornamental repertoires. This idiosyncratic combination is typical for late medieval Norwegian art.

The crozier, or pastoral staff, is carried by bishops, abbots, and abbesses (and occasionally by other senior ecclesiastics) as a symbol of authority and pastoral care.

A.1-2002