LOT 0324

Medieval Silver Plaque Depicting Presentation Scene

NORTHERN FRANCE OR FLANDERS, 15TH CENTURY A.D.

3 3/4 in. (6 in.) (241 grams total, 94 mm, 15.3 cm including stand).

Rectangular plaque with reserved border and fluted spandrels to the upper corners; figural scene with standing nimbate female in veiled robe holding a book in one hand; before her, a standing child with hand raised towards her and behind him an adult male in knee-length tunic with a travelling cloak; altar with stepped base, paved floor, latticework with quatrefoils at the nodes; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

Mrs Chester D. Tripp.
Gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art in honour of William Wixom, 1979.
Deaccessioned by the museum before 2000.
Private collection, Scotland, acquired at auction in Zurich in 2000.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.13543-262827.

See the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv.no.17.190.969, for a plaque with the Flagellation, for a similar background pattern and framing border.

The plaque shows a child being presented by his father to a nimbate female saint wearing a veil covering her hair. The plaque features fictitious cusped architectural arches that spring from small corbels at each of the upper corners and embellish the plain borders framing the scene, as well as the tiled floors and diaper-pattern background ornamented with small cross motifs.