In the fourteenth century ivory carvings were in great demand, judging from the great number of the various ivories of that date which have been preserved.
Belonging to this period are the beautiful ivory hunting horns called “oliphants” (from elephant) that were much used by kings and nobles in hunting, and were sometimes mounted in gold.
The ivory carvings known as pierced or “open-work” are usually of very fine and delicate workmanship. The illustration (Fig. 118) shows two compartments of a larger plaque in the Kensington Museum, the full size of the originals that have sacred figures under Gothic canopies of fourteenth-century work. It is not known exactly to what country they belong, as ivory carvings as a rule are undated and unsigned, but the woodcut (Fig. 119) represents an undoubted piece of English work. It is one leaf of a diptych made for Grandison, Bishop of Exeter.
Fig. 118.—Ivory Carving; Fourteenth Century Pierced Work. (S.K.M.)
Few names of artists, as ivory carvers, have come down to us from the Middle Ages. One named Jean Lebraellier was the carver to Charles V. of France; Jehan Nicolle is another who has signed his name on an ivory pax in the British Museum. Henry des Grès was a “pignier” or carver of combs (1391). Héliot has dated work of 1392. Henry de Senlis, “tabletier,” plaque carver of 1454, and Philip Daniel, “pignier” and “tabletier” (1484), in Paris.
Fig. 119.—Ivory Diptych; English Work; Fourteenth Century. (S.K.M.)
The top of a Moorish casket from Spain, with Saracenic engraved ornament of the eleventh century, is shown at Fig. 120, and a beautiful casket from Italy, carved and engraved in bone, is illustrated at Fig. 121. This is fourteenth-century work. Caskets and coffers made of slabs of bone, carved and inlaid with figure subjects and armorial bearings, were made extensively in Italy at this period, and used as marriage coffers.
