Lot n° 3
Estimation :
30000 - 40000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 39 000EUR
Chess pawn "with elephant" in marine ivory... - Lot 3 - Pierre Bergé & Associés
Chess pawn "with elephant" in marine ivory carved in the round and monochrome red. It represents an elephant carrying a palanquin on which sits a dignitary, his legs bent and his arms resting on the armrests of his throne; his head bears a helmet decorated with protuberances with a median ridge; on either side of the elephant, a rider, with a headdress decorated with feathers, is holding his sword On the head of the elephant stands a mahout with a hook; on the back, a figure, probably a defeated enemy, is tied to the back of the palanquin, arms and legs spread; the pachyderm, with small ears, is lifting a dead horse with its head on the ground. Oval terrace decorated with a beaded stripe.
India, 12th/14th century
Height: 11.8 cm - Width: 6.8 cm - Depth: 7.6 cm - Weight: 482 g (small accidents and missing parts, including the upper part of the mahout)
A report of analysis by the carbon 14 method carried out by the CIRAM Laboratory on September 15, 2021 will be given to the buyer (n°0721-OA-473Z). It concludes that the ivory was dated between 1127 and 1394 with a 95.4% probability of confidence. He also provides an important clarification about the ivory: "the ?13C and ?15N values indicate that the material came from a marine organism, whose diet was somewhere between malacophagous, feeding on mollusks, and ichthyophagous, feeding on fish."
Works consulted: H. and S. Wichmann, Schach - Ursprung und
Wandlung der Spielfigur in zwölf Jarhunderten, Munich, 1960; Exhibition
New York 1985/86, India - Art and Culture 1300 - 1900, cat. 72, S. C.
Welch, 126-127; Exhibition Paris 1990, Chess Pieces, Bibliothèque nationale - Cabinet des Médailles, Exhibition Paris 1991, The Treasure of Saint-Denis, Musée du Louvre, cat. D. Gaborit-Chopin; Exhibition Rheydt 1994, Mit Glück und Verstand, Museum Schloss, cat. H 1C; Exhibition
Aachen 2003, Ex oriente - Isaak und der Weisse Elefant, Rathaus, Dom and Domschatzkammer, cat.832S. Makariou, "Le jeu d'échecs, une pratique de l'aristocratie entre islam et chrétienté des XIe-XIIIe siècles" in
Les Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa, XXXVI, 2005, p 127-140; Exhibition
Paris 2012/13, Art du jeu - Jeu dans l'art de Babylone à l'occident médiéval, Musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen Age, cat.
Another pawn with a red monochrome elephant, belonging to a German private collection, obviously made in the same workshop, was published in the catalogue of the exhibition at Rheydt Castle Museum (fig. a and b). It is 16.2 cm high and shows a base with similar concentric cracks. The elephant appears to be knocking down an enemy rider and instead of horses, other elephants ridden by soldiers are depicted. The authors situate the origin of this counter in India and do not give a precise date, although they describe it as "probably medieval". This second red elephant gives the interesting proof of the existence of a workshop supplying this type of chess piece.
This is not the case of the famous pawn called Elephant of Charlemagne kept in the Cabinet des Médailles belonging to the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and coming from the treasure of Saint-Denis (H.15,5 cm, D.8,9 cm), always considered as unique (fig.c to f). The general composition is however very close to that of these two counters. Some differences are nevertheless to be underlined, such as the absence of any trace of old polychromy, a more refined workmanship and a particularly rich iconography. However, many similarities seem to link these pieces together and one can think, if not of the same workshop, at least of several workshops belonging to a common geographical sphere and working over several decades.
The spirit that animates this incarnation of a potentate accompanied by his soldiers is indeed the same, that of affirming a will to power. If some have seen scenes of acrobatics in the gestures of several of the Islamic arts, one must undoubtedly see the representation of a war elephant in action, tearing an enemy rider from his mount in the one known as Charlemagne's, knocking them over in the one belonging to a private collection or, as here, lifting a dead horse. The men tied in the same X-position, arms and legs spread, which can be seen on each of the elephants, unquestionably symbolize the defeated enemy. Decorative elements such as the beads on the harness and the beads on the terrace, which are two rows in number on the Saint-Denis sculpture, further support the relationship between these sculptures. Finally, details of the animal's anatomy, its protruding eyelids, its small ears with indented edges, its legs emphasised by dotted lines, as well as that of the horses, with their similar manes and hind legs, attest to an obvious origin and period.
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