Lot Essay
This complex ivory group is closely related to two ivories in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, which include the same combination of adult figures and children cavorting on a fruit-bestrewn ground (Kataloge des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums, loc. cit.). Each of the three must originally have served as the lid to an elaborate tankard, with a further finial figure rising from the centre. A slightly later, but complete, example of this type of tankard is illustrated in Randall's catalogue of ivories in the Walters Art Gallery (loc. cit.).