A king

This ivory statuette of a king, when open, forms a triptych showing on the inside a king and two knights preparing to start on a Crusade. A considerable number of such figures are in existence, including those of several English sovereigns. The peculiar form was apparently originally based on a statuette of the Virgin and Child which, when opened, showed scenes from the Life of Christ. This figure, which was formerly said to have come from the Priory of Boubon (Haute Vienne), had been ascribed to the thirteenth century, though its authenticity is by no means unquestionable. It may well date from the mid-19th century. Although broadly Gothic, the style of this piece indicates that it is a nineteenth-century ivory, probably made in Dieppe.