Lot n° 114
Estimation :
30000 - 40000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 31 000EUR
ILE DE FRANCE ou PICARDIE, vers 1460-1470
Exceptional carved oak cabinet opening with three doors on two registers decorated with clerestory fillings lined with a panel at the bottom and with parchment folds.
Door of the upper register with two panels: the one on the left with the French shield in oblique with three fleur-de-lys on a wavy field surmounted by the closed royal crown, the one on the right with a vase with four thistles in bloom of Scotland and the stem ending with a heraldic fleur-de-lys; this door is flanked by four panels with fillings, arcatures in accolade and ogives.
The jambs lined with twisted buttresses, with scales or gouge, topped with hooked pinnacles.
The lower register leaves with parchment folds and outstretched wings decorated with scrolls and fleurons.
The cornice deeply carved with a sinuous branch with bare branches.
Sides with four parchment folded panels.
Beautiful cut, chiselled and pierced ironwork consisting of branching hinges with corded medallions centred on chevron shields of the Carrick family and two-lobed mobile handles.
Remains of a painted decoration on the reverse of the lower right door with a figure of Christ in contempt accompanied by a gothic inscription in the lower part (10.6 cm x 4.5 cm)
H.: 169,5 cm - Overall width: 139 cm - Overall depth: 66,5 cm.
Small restorations, missing locks, the upper tray redone, the lower crosspiece has lost its frieze.
- Certificate of expertise of Jacqueline Boccador, antique dealer and art historian
- Heraldic report by Michel Pastoureau dated May 12, 1984.
Provenance:
- Most probably offered by the Stuart family or the Earl of Carrick to the French king Louis XI (1423-1483).
- Jacqueline Boccador Collection.
- Monsieur and Madame Sechet-Mayer Collection, Paris.
- Private collection.
Bibliography:
- J. Boccador, Le mobilier français du Moyen Âge à la Renaissance, ed. Monelle Hayot, Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau, 1988, pp. 64-67, fig.
- J. Boccador, Fiche 170 a in L'Estampille, pp. 59-60, ill.
- Michel Pastoureau, Le mobilier français du Moyen Âge à la Renaissance, Monelle Hayot, Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau, 1988, p. 67.
This piece of furniture is exceptional in every respect, both for its history and for its remarkable state of preservation.
About fifty years ago, Jacqueline Boccador, an eminent specialist in furniture from the Middle Ages, and Michel Pastoureau, a renowned medievalist in heraldry, wrote an extensive description and documentation on it. We owe him the identification of the coats of arms: those of the three fleurs-de-lis of the kingdom of France answering the vase with the four thistles of the royal family of Scotland, considered as a pre-heraldic emblem of a "badge", as well as the shield with the chevron of the fittings belonging to the Scottish family of Carrick.
The presence of these elements led to the identification of an Earl of Garrick as the commissioner of this piece of furniture of great quality and King Louis XI himself as its recipient.
We know of the close ties between France and Scotland in their common struggle against the Burgundians and the English
and we also know that an Earl of Carrick led several diplomatic missions to the French court during the reigns of Charles VII and Louis XI.
This reasoning led Jacqueline Boccador to locate the origin of this cabinet as Scottish, as shown in various publications.
However, it is worth noting the great refinement of this piece of furniture, both in its woodwork and its ironwork, which rules out a realization in this country, no other example supporting this hypothesis.
It is more likely that this cabinet was commissioned in France from a workshop in the Ile de France or Picardy, of which it would thus be a precious testimony.
Works consulted:
- V. Chinnery, Oak Furniture - The British Tradition, Suffolk, 1979.
- L. Fligny, Le Mobilier en Picardie 1200-1700, Paris, 1990.
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