Late Medieval Period, English Antique Carved Oak Misericord in the Form of a Grotesque, circa 1500

A rare and characterful late medieval carved oak misericord, English, dating to the late 15th or early 16th century. The carving takes the form of a mythical grotesque — a broad grinning face with pointed, animal-like ears, flanked by squat supporting members — rendered with all the vigour and irreverent humour for which the medieval misericord carver is celebrated.

The misericord (from the Latin misericordia, "mercy" or "pity") was the hinged mercy-seat of the monastic and collegiate choir stall. When tipped up, its underside ledge afforded a discreet support on which the aged or infirm cleric might rest during the long hours of the divine office, all the while appearing to stand. Hidden beneath the seat and quite beyond the reach of liturgical decorum, these brackets became the carver's licence: a secret bestiary of grotesques, green men, beasts, fables and the comedy of daily life, executed with a freedom found nowhere else in the medieval church. Our grinning, pointed-eared creature belongs squarely to that subversive tradition.

Survivals of this kind carry a particular poignancy, so much of England's choir-stall carving having been swept away at the Reformation and again under the Commonwealth. To have escaped that destruction at all is itself remarkable.

Provenance: England, circa 1500.

Material: Oak

Condition: Honestly described: the moulded top is a later addition, and there are knocks, a loss to the centre, and some splitting to the face, more pronounced to one side. These are the marks of five centuries and the hazards of survival — an interesting and engaging example with genuine medieval presence.

Dimensions: 8¼ in high × 15¼ in wide × 4¾ in deep (21 cm × 38.5 cm × 12 cm).