Front of a royal chest in walnut, Loire Valley, 15th century

Important chest front composed of a monoxyl walnut board 160 cm long, 60 cm wide and 3
cm thick. It has a delicate sculpted decoration imitating the architecture of Gothic cathedrals
with a register of small mullioned windows surmounted by six rosettes enclosed in pointed
arches topped with florets. Each rose window is decorated with a complex interlaced
decoration alternating radiant and flamboyant Gothic.
The central part presents the iron plate of the original lock which was with hasp, and below
the shield of France with three flowers of Lys under a crown with florets of leaves of ache.

Nice state of conservation for the period, wear, lacks and traces of xylophagous insects.

Carving workshop of the crown, Loire Valley, second part of the 15th century.

Dimensions :

Width : 159.5 cm ; Depth : 59.5

Related models :

- Louvre Museum, large chest in walnut with the arms of France, old collection Revoil
(MRR 63).
- Louvre Museum, front of a walnut chest with flamboyant decoration and fleur-de-lys
(MRR 65).
- Oak chest from the hospice of Beauvais, Departmental Museum of the Oise.

Bibliography :

Jacques Thirion, « Le mobilier du Moyen-Âge et de la Renaissance en France », published by
Faton, pages 36 to 39.

Jacqueline Boccador " Le mobilier français du Moyen-Âge à la Renaissance " published by
Monelle Hayot, pages 24 to 32.

Our view :

The chest of which we present the frontage was produced in the Loire Valley, by the
workshops of sculpture of the crown in the second part of the 15th century, that is to say
during a period included between the reign of Charles VII (1422-1461) of his son Louis XI
(1461-1483) and his grand-son Charles VIII (1483-1498).
Under the pressure of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII moved the seat of the court to the
fortified castle of Amboise, which marked the beginning of the stay of the kings of France in
the Loire Valley. With his wife Marie d'Anjou (1404- 1463), he stayed in turn in the castles of
Chinon and Loches which he particularly liked.
His son, Louis XI, resided at the castle of Plessis-Les-Tours but chose Amboise for the
residence of his wife, the queen, Charlotte of Savoy, and the dauphin, the future Charles VIII

(1470-1483-1498) who was born in Amboise in 1470 and undertook considerable work on the
castle to install a new home. The inventories of the Château d'Amboise also mention an order
for several large chests made by the city's carpenters between 1493 and 1496.
If some armored chests of this period have come down to us, it is not easy to date them
precisely nor to know their exact destination, even if we know that this type of emblazoned
merchandise was at that time reserved for the castles of the court.
The fineness of our facade sculpture and its rich decoration that can be compared to that of the
rose windows of the most beautiful cathedrals of this period represents the quintessence of the
flamboyant Gothic style. It is a rare testimony to the richness of court art under the Valois
dynasty. In view of its quality and its royal origin, we can affirm without the slightest
complex that it is a museum piece.