Antique Cabinets - Item 4143
Gothic Cabinet in Chestnut

Item 4143 Gothic Cabinet with Fenestrage or Tracery Dimensions Width 48, Height 40¼, Depth 17 (in inches) Wood Solid chestnut Country France Date Circa 1880 Description This small cabinet is brimming with Gothic decorative motifs and epitomizes French Gothic Revival at its flamboyant best.  But what initially attracted us to the cabinet was that it was made from chestnut.  Very few 19th century pieces of French furniture were made in chestnut and even fewer in the Gothic style.  Part of this is attributable to where chestnut was available in 19th century France, particularly in Central France (Massif Central) where orchards were started by monasteries and flourished during the planet's cyclical warm spell in the 10th century.  Ink Disease destroyed most of these orchards around 1870,  leading to deforestation.  The date of this cabinet, circa 1880, would be in line with the use of chestnut lumber that had been harvested and dried prior to the blight.  Chestnut has an especially rich and warm hue, reminiscent of walnut, but with a grain and texture resembling oak.  However, since it is not as hard as oak, it lends itself to the intricate carving reflected in this piece. In addition to the wood, it is remarkable to find a cabinet that is this small and was not the product of a "divorce," i.e., its top part having been removed and made into a separate cabinet.  Instead, it is clear that this piece was designed to stand alone, its overall hexagonal shape offering a greater number of vertical surfaces for carving than a more traditional rectangular structure.  Each of the five visible sides is carved in fenestrage (tracery) design evoking Gothic architecture and the intricate outlines of stained glass windows in cathedrals.  This leads us to believe that it was likely created as a commission or one-off design for a lover of the Gothic style. The side panels feature arched spaces within other arched spaces, typical of tracery, but less typical is how the arches differ - from rounded Roman arch, to Gothic ogee and its gentle S-shaped curve.  For example, the front door panel consists of a grand, pointed arch in the ogee shape whose pinnacle is a stylized fleur-de lys and contains within its framework a quatrefoil and six lancet arches.  This reminds us of the magnificent chest of intricately carved fenestrage, including arches culminating in fleur-de-lys,  that used to be part of the Perrier Collection in France, sold at auction in Paris on April 6, 1992.  Such an upward tapering of the arch to a flame-like point, or in this case a fleur-de-lys, is typical of the flamboyant (referring to a flame-like rather than "over-the-top") or Late Gothic style in France.  Above the ogee is a Roman arch, whose interior space is populated by lancet arches in graduated heights. As if the intricate fenestrage were not enough, incorporated in the design to frame the front of the cabinet is a pair of crocketed pinnacles atop a niche enclosing lancet arches that mimic the decoration of buttresses at Rouen Cathedral where the niches contain sculpted figures. Such a creative and refined use of various types of arches is distinctive and reflects a furniture maker of rare skill and imagination, in turn a homage to the nameless medieval craftsmen whose intricate fenestrage was a glory of the High Middle Ages in France. The cabinet has a central drawer, also decorated with another variation of the arch motif.  This time, the arches are turned on their sides and radiate from the central drawer-pull in an overlapping pattern.  Within each arch are two mouchettes or elongated ellipses containing two tear-dropped shaped lobes. The maker of this extraordinary little piece was an expert in the vocabulary of Gothic design and undoubtedly made it for like-minded owners who, judging by the condition in which it has come to us, treasured it for many years.   Reference Ader-Tajan, Collection Bruno Perrier Haute Epoque (Catalog for Sale at Auction on April 6, 1992 at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris); Boccador, Jacqueline, Le Mobilier Français du Moyen Age à la Renaissance, Editions d'Art Monelle Hayot (Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, 1988); Thirion, Jacques, Le Mobilier du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance en France (Editions Faton, Dijon, 1998); Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène, Le Mobilier Médiéval (Georges Bernage, editor) (Editions Heimdal, 2003).   Uses This cabinet is ideally suited to any room where its five intricately carved sides can be fully viewed.  For example, it could be placed under a mirror in an entryway or behind a sofa in a living room.