Keywords: Atelier of the Boxes - Writing Tablet and Lid - Walters 71283 - View B.jpg During the Middle Ages paper and parchment were expensive and many people took advantage of less permanent forms of written communication One side of an ivory tablet was coated with wax; then a message was incised in the wax with a stylus which looks like a large pin and protected by an ivory lid The little box would be sent to the recipient who smoothed the wax and responded The sliding cover depicts three ladies in the town looking over its walls at two embracing couples seen to the left The bottom of the box shows the same town at greater distance a tent with two more lovers a hawking expedition and a hermit reading outside his rustic cell Several writing boxes are known from the same otherwise unidentified workshop between 1340 1360 Medieval ivory H 3 11/16 x W 2 1/8 x D of tablet and lid together 7/16 in 9 3 x 5 4 x 1 1 cm accession number 71 283 9704 Sale Cologne December 14 1893 no 92 Marcus Antocolsky Paris date and mode of acquisition unknown Marcus Antocolsky Sale Hotel Drouot Paris June 10 1901 no 73 George Robinson Harding London date and mode of acquisition unknown Henry Walters Baltimore June 15 1901 by purchase Walters Art Museum Henry Walters Acquired by Henry Walters 1901 The International Style The Arts in Europe Around 1400 The Walters Art Gallery Baltimore 1962 Images of Love and Death in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art Ann Arbor 1975-1976 The Medieval Garden Spencer Museum of Art Lawrence; Dumbarton Oaks Washington 1983 Images in Ivory Precious Objects of the Gothic Age The Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit; The Walters Art Gallery Baltimore 1997 place of origin north France Walters Art Museum license Medieval ivory in the Walters Art Museum Atelier of the Boxes Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review |