A GOTHIC WALNUT CABINET SPAIN OR SOUTHERN FRANCE, DATED 1504

Incised '1504' below the cornice, the cabinet door and flanking panels carved with blind tracery and centering a coat-of-arms, the lower drawer and lower sides with linenfold carving, the drawer front carved in 'SCX' below the lock, the reverse with an old canvas label inscribed 'A.5141.48 / 359'
763⁄4 in. (195 cm.) high, 463⁄4 in. (119 cm.) wide, 181⁄4 in. (46.5 cm.) deep

Lot Essay
The early-sixteenth century date incised at the top of this cabinet is reflected in its finely drawn decoration, typical of the late Gothic period. The development of the ‘Flamboyant’ style in architecture was defined not by a revolution in structure, but instead as an advancement of the art of ornament to bolder and greater heights, with the ogee curve repeated, interlaced and recursed as the basic unit of linear patterning. The present cabinet is an analogue to this development, being of essentially simple and solid construction, but finely decorated with complex tracery based on the ogee. Both the front and sides receive arcades of blind-carved fenestration based on these curves, with their resultant quatrefoils, cusps and mouchettes ornamenting and lightening the paneling. Even the pendant iron pulls are formed as paired ogees, enclosing a soufflet or ‘bellows’ shape. A useful comparison for the decoration to this lot is the similarly-drawn oak châssis de fenêtre from a private Rouen house of the late fifteenth century, now preserved in the Louvre Museum (inv. no. OA 230). A dressoir with a similar style of tracery is illustrated in G. Wannenes, Mobili di Francia: Gotico, Rinascimento e Barocco, Milan, 1988, cat. no. 7. For case furniture brought to market, see an oak dressoir sold Sotheby’s, London, 29 October 2008, lot 3; two oak chests sold Sotheby’s, London, 31 October 2007, lots 56 and 72; and the walnut chest sold Christie’s, New York, 6 February 2002, lot 187 ($17,625).