An important and highly unusual French Gothic carved oak boiserie late 15th /early 16th century

in various sections all carved with linenfold, one with a four windows, three sections with a pierced cresting carved with dragons flanking a fountain with leafy finials 

Colour slightly less orange overall and much more attractive than in the photograph. Superb patina. Beautiful carving and very harmonious design. Very minor hairline cracks and cracks generally commensurate with age as visible from the photograph which can be left or filled. The original material beneath the wrought ironwork is visible which is a nice feature. The window frames are probably later replacements. The carving of the pierced panels on the top is nicely done. It is extremely rare to find these boiseries surviving in such good condition and it is of rare design incorporating a door, recess and windows. These boiseries rarely come up for auction and this piece is for a Collector or Museum and highly recommended.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The boiserie can be assembled in many different ways and each section is detachable. 

Comparative Literature:
Monique Blanc, Le mobilier français, Moyen Age et Renaissance, Paris, 1999, p. 16.

This magnificent boiserie is notable due to the fact that very few boiseries from this date have survived intact and in such pristine condition and it is highly unusual for a boiserie to incorporate not only niches and  recesses but also a door, cupboards and windows as on the present example.

Gothic decoration in both furniture and interior decoration was inevitably linked with the Church and its architecture. Although one should never assume, unless the piece of furniture is a choir stall or pulpit, that it was necessarily made for Church use, as the Gothic style was in use for all purposes, whether religious, secular or domestic. 
When one considers the furniture of the Gothic period one has to assume that the surviving pieces would most probably have belonged to an affluent merchant or burgher, as the furniture of the peasantry and minor yeomanry was very primitive and has largely disappeared and this boiserie would almost certainly have been installed in the house of a wealthy merchant or member of the ruling classes.

The Great Hall was not suitable for wall panelling in the Middle Ages due to its ceiling height and the arrangement of the windows. It was only later when rooms had become smaller and of lesser height and plaster ceilings had been replaced by open roofs of timber that panelling began to replace walls that were bare or painted or hung with cloths or tapestries. Oak was the material of choice for wall-panelling and panelling coincided with the last years of the 15^th century and bridged the Gothic and Renaissance.

The linenfold style:
In medieval art, great appreciation was made of the folds in drapery of cloths and textiles which dates back to and can be most clearly seen in Flemish panel painting of 15^th century, where great emphasis was placed on this. The linenfold style developed from the simple parchemin or parchment fold with a pronounced central ridge which finished at either end with a straightforward ogee arch. True linenfold appears in England in some accounts as `lignum undulatum'  literally wavy wood,  after 1450. Regional variations appeared in France, Germany and England by the end of the 15th century and it was used on chests, presses, wall-panelling and chimney-pieces. Wood panelling almost always made from oak became popular in Northern Europe from the 14th century after European craftsmen rediscovered the technique to make frame and panel joinery. The framing technique was used from the 13th century onwards to clad interior walls to form choir stalls.Often when used as  wall panelling it was painted to give the illusion of painted cloths or tapestries.

Related boiseries are recorded as follows:
-in 1949, a boiserie is known to have been in the collection of George Brummer, see the Catalogue Part II, no. 855, sold 11th-14th May 1949, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York,  reproduced here in fig. 1.
-the boiserie in the Musée de Plessis-le-Tours, illustrated by G. Boulanger, l'art de reconnaitre les styles régionaux, p. 231, reproduced here in fig. 2.
-the boiserie from the Château de Villeneuve-Lembron which is today in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, illustrated by Blanc, p. 16.
-the boiserie in the collection of Charles Stein, sold from Gallery Georges Petit, Paris, 8th-10th June 1899, no. 229, reproduced here in fig. 3 .