Fabulous antique French 1700 to early 1800s Napoleonic era Dieppe carved corpus or crucified Christ sculpture with magnificent detail & aged patina and beautifully displayed on a solid wood 12" cross or crucifix! One of two remarkable old crucifixes that we're adding this week, each unique with masterfully hand carved figures and superb decorative and/or devotional appeal! Something that struck me when visiting the Louvre, Notre Dame and other Parisian cathedrals was the similarity of pieces on display there. So, these are literally 'museum quality'! Of course, the second thing I noticed were the missing fingers and/or toes or other visible damage to the ones on display there. This piece with a few such flaws, chipped toes and I am confident that the arms are restorations added likely during the mid-late 1880s to the solid section from which the head, torso and legs were carved. The arms, as was always the case, were originally carved from separate pieces and attached at the shoulders so the fact that these are is not what makes me think they're restorations. The fact that they lack the exquisite detail found in the body is what gives them away. We've had several in the past that were completely missing arms making them slightly less valuable than complete but no less of a treasure. Marvelous detail to the flowing loin cloth. Not in an expired depiction, the figure's face is cast toward heaven. Superb!
Good condition. As noted above, the arms are carved of the same material but later 19th century restorations and not original to the body. Also, four or so of the toes have been chipped off. The cross itself is likely not original, rather plain but is lost behind the breathtaking figure anyway :). See pictures for all measurements.
MPORTANT NOTE regarding antique tortoise shell or ivory: We are great supporters of protection for endangered species in our modern world. We never buy or sell anything 100 years or newer; we donate to anti-poaching organizations; we don't hunt; we conserve in ways that impact global warming (we're totally solar at home), knowing those measures also protect the animals in the wild today. We also recognize the vast cultural history we preserve with our care and reverence for these antique objects, and agree with CITES that objects over 100 years of age have nothing whatsoever to do with species depletion in our current world.
Our offering exceeds the age limitation of "more than 100 years of age", and is well within the exemption for CITES regulation. If imported, met the CITES regulation. This item will be handled and shipped from our Utah business, and is not available for shipment internationally, nor within the USA to California, NY, Nevada, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington if it contains ivory, sorry. Please see our small print for more details.
