This is the left leaf of an ivory diptych made in France, probably Paris, in about 1300-1310. The narrative reads from left to right in the lower register and from right to left in the upper, and shows the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Adoration of the Magi, the Death of the Virgin and the Coronation of the Virgin. The scenes, on two tiers are separated by bands of rosettes. The carvings are distinguished by dramatic sentiment and tragic grandeur. There are few parallels for the present diptych, although the iconographic choices can be paralleled in other rose diptychs.

The devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion.