Lot Essay
Ivory carvings from Fatimid Egypt often display lively figural scenes including animals such hares, birds or deers, as the one visible here, or more complicated compositions such as hunting or courtly scenes. Ivory carved panels, which stylistically relate to wood carving with which they share consistency and technique of carving, were inserted into larger wooden panel and it is likely that the present panel was part of a more complicated composition. Many of these Fatimid carved panels are in major public collections. Groups of carved ivory panels now in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin, in the Bargello in Florence and in the Louvre exemplify the production of the Fatimid craftsmen (Marianne Barrucand et al, L'Egypte et son histoire, Paris, 1999, pp.404-8).