Skip to main content

Group of plaquettes: M.3A-I-2021

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Group of plaquettes

Maker(s)

Sculptor: Unknown (Possibly)

Entities

Categories

Description

Carved ivory

Carved ivory, a group of 9 satirical low-relief portrait-bust plaquettes of Louis XIV of France, James II of England and various French Catholic clergy, based on engravings published in 'Les heros de la Ligue' (Amsterdam, 1691).
A = Le Pere Petres
B = Guilleaume de Fustemberg
C = L’Evesque de Meaux
D = Mainbourg
E = Louvois
F = Pelisson
G = M.r Le Camus
H = De la Reignie
I = Le Commissaire la Marre
Each ivory is currently mounted separately, in a small frame.

Notes

History note: The ivories were originally owned by the donors' maternal great-grandmother, Mrs Frances Louisa Dickson (née Maunsell; 1877-1967), who was the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Honorary Keeper of Ceramics (in succession to Dr J.W.L. Glaisher) from 1929 until 1962. During her time in office, Mrs Dickson gave generously to the Museum: mainly large groups of English glass and English porcelain (particularly figures) but also English enamels, and, significantly in the present context, a pair of signed ivory portrait medallions by the great Huguenot ivory carver, David Le Marchand (M.5-1945 and M.6-1945). According to handwritten notes by Mrs Dickson, she acquired these ivories (at an unknown date) from Mrs Emily Nevill Jackson, a collector and connoisseur, best known for her work on silhouettes; and ‘They were discovered in a sealed iron case under the debris of an outhouse near a farm in Suffolk.’

Legal notes

Given by James and Andrew Lindesay in memory of their parents, Edward Dickson Lindesay and Mary Elizabeth Lindesay

Place(s) associated

  • London ⪼ England
  • Amsterdam ⪼ Holland
  • Dieppe ⪼ France

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (2021-05-10) by Lindesay, James and Andrew

Dating

Circa 1691 - Circa 1880

Note

Research into this group of ivories is ongoing. There are several other similar sets of portraits derived from the 1691 'Les heros de la Ligue' (by Jacob Gole after Cornelis Dusart), but which differ from each other in number of plaquettes, choice of sitters, and in the quality of carving. It is currently unclear when these ivories were made: they could have been made, in England (London) or Holland (Amsterdam), by a refugee Huguenot ivory-carver from Dieppe, in the years following 1691 (which might explain their rather clandestine provenance in a sealed iron case); or they could have been made in Dieppe, which remained the great centre of ivory carving in France, in the second half of the 19th century, as sculpted equivalents to the broader ceramic production of ‘Faïence Patriotique’: several late 19th-century plates bearing portraits taken from the 1691 'Les heros de la Ligue' exist.

People, subjects and objects depicted

Materials used in production

Ivory

Techniques used in production

Carved

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.3A-I-2021
Primary reference Number: 288398
Object Entry Form: 519
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Wednesday 2 June 2021 Updated: Wednesday 4 October 2023 Last processed: Wednesday 11 October 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Group of plaquettes" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/288398 Accessed: 2024-03-28 19:30:07

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/288398 |title=Group of plaquettes |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-28 19:30:07|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-288398

More objects and works of art you might like

Netsuke

Accession Number: MAR.O.137-1912

Hercules slaying Cerberus

Accession Number: M.8-2014

Pew Group

Accession Number: C.779-1928

The Offering of Isaac

Accession Number: C.969-1928

Suggested products from Curating Cambridge

You might be interested in this...

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...