Early Renaissance Linenfold Cupboard

A tall joined oak cupboard in two tiers with four doors, the front and sides fully framed and panelled with a refined early Renaissance variant of the linenfold motif. Each panel is carved with a series of narrow vertical pleats, rising between plain stiles and finishing in small cusped “keyhole” heads and feet at top and bottom. This elongated linenfold pattern belongs to the late Gothic–early Renaissance vocabulary of mid-sixteenth-century Netherlandish workshops and closely relates to contemporary panelling in choir-stalls and sacristy cupboards in the Low Countries.
The carcass is completely joined and pegged, with unobtrusive moulded rails and stiles; the four doors hang on shaped pierced iron hinges and close to the centre with original wrought hasps and clasp-locks. The repetition of the same panelling scheme to the sides confirms that the cupboard was conceived as a display piece in a well-appointed interior.