Double-Sided Ivory Liturgical Comb with Scenes of Henry II and Thomas Becket

Title: Double-Sided Ivory Liturgical Comb with Scenes of Henry II and Thomas Becket

Date: ca. 1200–1210

Geography: Made in Canterbury, England (possibly)

Culture: British

Medium: Elephant ivory

Dimensions: Overall: 3 3/8 x 3 3/8 x 1/2 in. (8.6 x 8.6 x 1.2 cm)

Classification: Ivories-Elephant

Credit Line: Purchase, Rogers Fund, and Schimmel Foundation Inc., Mrs. Maxime L. Hermanos, Lila Acheson Wallace, Nathaniel Spear Jr., Mrs. Katherine S. Rorimer, William Kelly Simpson, Alastair B. Martin and Anonymous Gifts, 1988

Accession Number: 1988.279

This comb is composed of a single piece of elephant ivory. Elliptical in cross-section, the comb sports two sets of teeth – one in which is thicker and more widely-spaced than the other – set between two thick end pieces that lend combs of this type the name "H Combs." The two faces of the comb have been carved with scenes from the life of Thomas Becket, an archbishop of Canterbury assassinated by the Angevin king Henry II in 1170. The assassination became a sensationalized political scandal both in England and on the continent, and stories of Becket’s martyrdom, his apparent piety, and the miracles reported at his tomb led to his widespread veneration as a saint throughout Latin Christendom.

On the central panel of one side of the current comb, the enthroned king Henry II endows Becket with the Episcopal See of Canterbury. Two half lunettes on either side represent a monastery and a ship near a coast, likely a reference to the archdiocese over which Becket would reside and the ship that would ferry him between the continental domains of Henry II and England. On the other side of the comb, Becket is cut down by a group of four soldiers with swords while performing a mass. His two attendants, one of whom holds a book and the other of whom attempts to fend off the attacking knight and support Becket as he falls. To the proper left of the lunette, and angel holds a scroll, while the matching one on the right features a demon with a book. On both the front and the back of the comb, the protruding edges have been adorned with scrolling acanthus leaves. These leaves, along with the clinging draperies and the dynamic contrapposto, suggest an engagement with late antique Roman sculpture that art historians consider typical of English art around the year 1200. The heavy abrading to all surfaces and multiple missing tines are consistent with its great age. The surface also features multiple dehydration cracks, areas of discoloring, and patches of wax.

The comb’s dimensions and distinctive shape is similar to a comb in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. no. A.27-1977), the "Comb of Emperor Henry II" in the Musée de la Princerie, Verdun (inv.no. 85.6.25), and the Liturgical Comb of Saint Orens in the Musée des Jacobins, Auch (998.07.002). Along those lines, it is also comparable to an eleventh or early twelfth-century comb in The Met’s collection (acc. no. 66.172) and a group of similarlyconstructed combs in the Diözesanmuseum Bamberg, the Rheinisches Landesmuseum of Bonn, and the Schatzkammer of the Regensburg Dom. The combs in German collections appear to be palimpsests, originally decorated with incised dot-and-circle motifs before later receiving figural carving in higher relief. It is possible that, like these combs, this example was made in the Mediterranean and re-carved in northern Europe.

Academic literature often refers to surviving twelfth-century European combs as "liturgical combs." The depiction of a high clergyman martyred while performing Mass is highly suggestive of this object’s association with Christian ritual. Like many aspects of medieval Christian devotional culture, the use of combs in Church rituals appears to have been variable, localized, and changeable over time. The thirteenth-century bishop of Mende, France, for instance, suggests that a church’s deacon comb the hair of an officiating priest before the performance of Mass to remove "superfluous thoughts." A near-contemporary manual for the abbots of the monastery of Evansham called the "Evesham Book" suggests the priest’s hair be combed before Vespers, Matins, and Mass. A century later, church rituals in Viviers, France, had the priest remove his headdress and comb his hair after singing the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo, different sections of a Christian liturgy.

Further Reading:

Charles T. Little, "The Road to Glory: New Early Images of Thomas Becket's Life," in Reading Medieval Images: the Art Historian and the Object, ed. Elizabeth Sears, and Thelma Thomas (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), pp. 201–9.

Richard Gameson, "The Early Imagery of Thomas Becket." Pilgrimage: The English Experience from Becket to Bunyan, ed. Colin Morris and Peter Roberts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 46-89.

Michael Staunton, Thomas Becket and His Biographers (Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 2006).

Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, Part II (London: V&A Publishing, 2014), pp. 609-631.

Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022

Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague, comtesse de Béarn, Paris (until d. 1939); by descent to Octave Marie Hubert, marquis de Ganay(until d. 1974); by descent to Jean-Louis, marquis de Ganay(sold 1987); comtesse de Béhague sale, Sotheby's, Monaco(December 5, 1987, no. 166); [ Edward R. Lubin, Works of Art, New York (sold 1988)]

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mirror of the Medieval World," March 9–June 1, 1999.

Los Angeles. J. Paul Getty Museum. "Canterbury Glass and the St. Albans Psalter: Treasures from Church and Cloister," September 30, 2013–February 2, 2014.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Winchester Bible: A Masterpiece of Medieval Art in Context," December 8, 2014–March 8, 2015.

Antiquités et Objets d'Art: Collection de Martine, Comtesse de Béhague, Provenant de la Succession du Marquis de Ganay; Single Leaves from Illuminated Manuscripts. Monaco: Sotheby's, 1987. no. 166, p. 153.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1988-1989." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 47, no. 2 (Fall 1989). p. 16.

Clark, William W., and Charles T. Little. "Notable Recent Acquisitions, Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters, New York." Gesta 29. no. 2 (1990). pp. 240–41, fig. 6–7.

Wixom, William D., ed. Mirror of the Medieval World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. no. 115, p. 96.

Gameson, Richard. "The Early Imagery of Thomas Becket." In Pilgrimage: The English Experience from Becket to Bunyan, edited by Colin Morris, and Peter Roberts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. pp. 55–56, 63 n. 53, fig. 2.

Little, Charles T. "The Road to Glory: New Early Images of Thomas Becket's Life." In Reading Medieval Images: the Art Historian and the Object, edited by Elizabeth Sears, and Thelma K. Thomas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. pp. 201–9, fig. 16.1–16.2.

Stein, Wendy A. How to Read Medieval Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. pp. 84–85, fig. 20.