This ivory medallion relief representing the Adoration of the Magi was made in Germany (probably Middle Rhine), about 1460-80. This subject was often included with other scenes from Christ's childhood on altarpieces, but it was also used frequently as an individual devotional scene. This particular composition of the Adoration of the Magi is to be found on several other reliefs of varying shapes and sizes in ivory, mother-of-pearl, terracotta, wood and stone (and in a drawing in Coburg) is based on a much copied and now lost print by the Upper Rhenish engraver known as the Master E. S.; this was plausibly proposed by Hans Huth in 1935 and he further attributed the V&A roundel to a Middle Rhenish workshop in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. He identified another ten examples in materials other than ivory, and since his study further pieces have come to light.

This miniature ivory reliefs should be viewed in the same light as their kleinplastik counterparts in precious metals and enamel. And the later pieces, from the second half of the fifteenth to the early sixteenth century, are also often comparable to works in other materials, such as the more numerous mother-of-pearl roundels. Both drew on the same graphic sources and brought sacred images into the possession of the pious.