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Casket with Mythological and Battle Scenes.
Northern Europe, 1st ½ 12th Century
Side 1
Northern Europe, 11th/ 12th Century
CASKET WITH MYTHOLOGICAL AND BATTLE SCENES
the underside inscribed in white paint: WA/1769/A and with an old white label inscribed in blue ink: W.L.H and an old blue label printed: WA/1769
partially polychromed bone, on a wood carcass, with iron mounts, copper pins and with metal panels behind sections of the openwork bone decoration
22.4 by 22.7cm., 8¾ by 8 7/8 in.
PROVENANCE
By repute an Alpine Convent
certainly Baron Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890), Paris, France, until 1890
Anderson Galleries, New York, Medieval & Renaissance Art ... from the Frederic Spitzer Collection, 9-10 January 1929, lot 255
by repute William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), Saint Donat's Castle, Wales
certainly with Michel Dumez-Onof, London, 1980
The private collection of the late Stanley J. Seeger
CATALOGUE NOTE
This intriguing casket compares with a group of polychromed bone boxes made in the Rhineland region of modern Germany between the 10th and the 12th centuries. See, for example, the box in the church of St. Andreas, Cologne (Ornamenta..., op. cit., no. E60) and the casket sold in these rooms on 2 July 2013, lot 5. The linear incised decoration seen on these boxes, although non-figurative, relates closely to the decorative scheme governing the present casket. Note, in particular, the presence of the same ring and dot motif, as well as openwork sections, which are sometimes inlaid with different materials, as is the case with the arched windows adorning the present box. The Rhenish examples are very rare, surviving almost entirely within church treasures. The present casket, however, with its extensive figurative scenes, appears to be completely without precedent.
Each of the motifs and scenes represented nevertheless find parallels in 11th- and 12th-century art. The little arched windows find a precedent in an early 13th-century bone casket believed to have been made in Cologne, which is published by Goldschmidt (vol. iii, op. cit., no. 76a-b). It is interesting to note that these windows are separated by little twisted columns, similar to those flanking the windows above the scene with two knights on horseback on the present box. Round headed arches occur consistently in 11th and 12th century ivories, being characteristic of the Romanesque style: see, for example, the 12th century Cologne ivory reliquary in the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Brussels (Goldschmidt, vol. iii, op. cit., no. 53a-e) and numerous of the Salerno ivories (Bologna, op. cit., nos. 53, 65, 69).
The scenes themselves are indebted to Byzantine prototypes. Note, in particular, the floating ethereal figures (possibly angels) flanking the crucifix on the lid. These are similar to angels appearing on a South Italian, 11th-century, oliphant from the Musée de Cluny (inv. no. CL 13.065), itself influenced by Byzantine compositions. The knights on horseback also compare with Byzantine representations: note, for example, those adorning a 12th-century Byzantine casket in the Hermitage, St Petersburg (Goldschmidt, vol. i, op. cit., no. 98 a-e). Centaurs and exotic beasts similar to those on the present box are found in Norman-Sicilian, 12th-century, mosaics from Palazzo Reale, Palermo, again heavily influenced by the Byzantine mosaic tradition. A centaur is also found on the famous 10th-century Byzantine Veroli Casket in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 216-1865).
The costumes worn by the soldiers and horsemen nevertheless confirm that the present casket is the work of Western European craftsmen. The conical helmets, skirts, and long oval shields are very similar to those worn by a knight on a late 12th-century Cologne walrus ivory fragment in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (inv. no. 71.144). Similar helmets are famously represented in the 11th-century Bayeux tapestry, whilst the boat scene, with distinctive billowing mast, finds close precedents in episodes again from the tapestry. Archer-centaurs are found on an English 12th-century walrus ivory oval box in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. 208-1874).
The present casket is supremely rare, to the extent that it finds no clear precedent. Its sophisticated decorative arrangement nonetheless corresponds with artworks dating to the 11th and 12th centuries, and its importance is underscored by the fact that it was owned by one of the most important collectors and dealers of Medieval art, Baron Frédéric Spitzer, and may even have been in the possession of the great newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst at Saint Donat's Castle.
RELATED LITERATURE
A. Goldschmidt, Die Byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen aus des X.-XIII. Jahrhunderts, vol. i, Berlin, 1918, p. 56, no. 98a-e;
A. Goldschmidt, Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der Romanischen zeit, vol. iii, Berlin, 1918, pp. 20-21, 26-27, nos. 53a-c and 76a-b;
Ornamenta Ecclesiae, exh. cat. Schnütgen Museums, Cologne, 1985, p. 274, no. E 60;
R. H. Randall Jr, Masterpieces of Ivory from The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1985, pp. 176-177, no. 257;
F. Bologna, L'Enigma degli avori medievali da Amalfi a Salerno, exh. cat. Salerno Museo Diocesano, Salerno, 2008, pp. 380-381, 422-423, 430-431, nos. 53, 65, 69;
P. Williamson, Medieval Ivory Carvings. Early Christian to Romanesque, cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2010, pp. 76-83, 390-393 nos. 15, 98
Technical Analysis
Radiocarbon Dating Measurement Report No. RCD-8185, prepared by J. Walker and R. L. Otlet at RCD RadioCarbon Dating, East Lockinge, sample taken December 2013, states that the bone from the lid of the casket dates to between AD 994 to AD 1154 (95% confidence intervals).
Radiocarbon Dating Measurement Report No. RCD-8186, prepared by J. Walker and R. L. Otlet at RCD RadioCarbon Dating, East Lockinge, sample taken December 2013, states that the wood from the base of the casket dates to between AD 1015 to AD 1157 (95% confidence intervals).
Source: Sothebys
