- Museum number
- WB.236
- Description
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Rosary bead or prayer-nut, boxwood; carved; opening in two halves, upper one closed by two doors. On the outside of the doors, the Virgin in the Temple (left), Marriage of the Virgin (right); inside the same doors, Moses and the Brazen Serpent (left) and the Deposition (right). Inside the upper half of the nut, in deep and delicate relief, the Crucifixion beneath a vaulted roof, staged on several levels.
The lower half of the prayer-nut is shut with one hinged flap which telescopes open, and is carved on both sides: on the front, The Annunciation with the words spoken by the Virgin and by Gabriel within the scene as scrolls; on the other side, The Nativity, with smaller scenes of the Circumcision, Presentation in the Temple and Christ among the doctors. Inside the lower half of the prayer-nut, carved in deep relief is the Bearing of the Cross. On the outside of both halves, Gothic tracery and flower-heads; suspension ring; inscribed.
- Production date
- 1500-1525 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 5.20 centimetres (lower half interior)
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Diameter: 6.50 centimetres (lower half)
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Diameter: 4.70 centimetres (upper half interior)
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Diameter: 5.70 centimetres (upper half)
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Length: 13.20 centimetres (open)
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Weight: 55 grammes
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Width: 9.40 centimetres (upper doors open)
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Depth: 4.80 centimetres (lower half)
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Depth: 3.50 centimetres (upper half)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Provenance: None is recorded.
Commentary: This is the most elaborate of the prayer-nuts in the Bequest, which can be compared with one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has two opening doors in upper half, but is nothing like as well carved (inv. no. 17.190.475). See Scholten 2016, cat.614. The Abegg Stiftung nut which belonged to J.van Cranevelt and which he described in detail in 1633 originally had a folding leaf like this nut: See Scholten in Wetter and Scholten 2017.
The similarities in the Bearing of the Cross scene on this nut (WB.236) and the one on another in the Waddesdon Bequest (WB.235) suggests they may have been made in the same workshop. The inscriptions were chanted during the Mass which, Scholten 2016 suggests [p.109] might point to the object having a liturgical function. The interleaving of figures and criss-crossing of lances/horses seen from different viewpoints invites the eye in to the scene. Similar to the way in which you find your way through a densely-crowded altarpiece.
Bibliography: Charles Hercules Read, 'The Waddesdon Bequest: Catalogue of the Works of Art bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, M.P., 1898', London, 1902, no. 236, pl.XLVIII; O.M. Dalton, 'The Waddesdon Bequest', 2nd edn (rev), British Museum, London, 1927, no.236; Hugh Tait, 'Catalogue of the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum. 1., The Jewels', British Museum, London, 1986, pp.51-56, figs.36-37; Dora Thornton, 'A Rothschild Renaissance: Treasures from the Waddesdon Bequest', British Museum, London, 2015, pp.162-167; F.Scholten, Small Wonders, Amsterdam 2016, p.109; Evelin Wetter and Frits Scholten, eds., Prayer Nuts, Private Devotion and Early Modern Art Collecting, Riggisberg 2017, p.21, fig.6 and p.57 where folding door is compared to Riggisberg nut which belonged to J.van Cranevelt which originally had a similar folding door.
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Image: Group photograph depicts from left to right. the registration number: WB.236, WB.235, and WB.238.
- Location
- On display (G2a/dc16)
- Acquisition date
- 1898
- Acquisition notes
- This collection is known as the Waddesdon Bequest under the terms of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild’s will.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- WB.236
