The reverse of the object is flat and smooth, without the depression for wax which would be found on a consular diptych, which would be used as a writing tablet.
The ivory's history between then and 1625 is unknown - in that year it was offered by the leading antiquary Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc to the Papal legate Cardinal Francesco Barberini in Aix-en-Provence, becoming part of the Barberini collection in Rome.