Accession number
MG 027
Creator
English
Date made
12th century AD
Materials
Ivory; Walrus Ivory
Collection
Dimensions (cm)
Provenance
File of material relating to a Saint Thomas a Becket chesspiece. Includes photocopy of information card with photocopy of image of object (date unspecified). Dates object to the twelfth or thirteenth century. Refers to the fact that reference to object published in '50 Treasures from the Hunt Collection' (Limerick: Hunt Museum Executive, 1993) by Patrick Doran. Information card also quotes from publication by Dean Porter entitled 'Ivory Carving in Later Medieval England, 1200-1400' (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1977) which states that the present object and the Cabinet des Médailles ivories may be from the same chess set or from the same workshop; photocopies of relevant extracts from Doran and Porter writings are present; photocopy of extract from volume II of publication issued to coincide with 'The Year 1200' exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which contains image and description of present object, which was exhibited (c. 1970); second photocopy of extract from same publication contains image and description of a fragment of a roundel said to have come from Canterbury Cathedral with life of Saint Alphege in the collection of John Hunt, Senior; a third photocopy of extract from same publication contains image and description of the painting of a crucifix signed by Berlinghieri Berlinghiero; a final photocopy of extract from same publication shows image of unidentified object; four black and white photographs of object (dates unspecified); photocopy of photograph of object (date unspecified); photocopy of photograph of an object referred to by Dean Porter. It is one of the chesspieces in the Cabinet des Médailles thought to be similar to present object; Hunt Museum object comment sheet (25 April 1996) containing comments made about object by John Cherry, British Museum. States that object is probably thirteenth-century, 1230s-40s, and that it might be English. Seems to question the Becket identification. Cherry states that this is an unusual part of the Becket story to be illustrated but on the other hand, the defacement of heads of figures might support Becket identification; paper, and photocopy thereof, by A.B. Tonnochy entitled 'Chessmen and Chessboards, possibly published in 'The Connoisseur' (date unspecified); paper by John Beckwith entitled 'The Metropolitan Museum of Art Centenary Exhibition - II: The Year 1200' c. 1970; note (date unspecified) which reads, 'note sectanqular fastening of mantle on St Benedict. BM Ms Arundel 155. fol 133 11th century ivory pectoral, Randall'; letter (8 April 1969) from Florens Deuchler, Chairman, Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to John Hunt, Senior, Drumleck, Baily, county Dublin. Writes that he would include present object in the Picture Book if he had measurements. Requests information about object.
Category
Technique
Copyright Attribution
Ivory carving of four knights | Ivory ,Walrus Ivory | 12th century AD | The Hunt Collection | PD
