Gothic Giltwood Tabernacle With Original Gilding and Blue Painted Decoration

A remarkably rare late-medieval devotional tabernacle of five-sided architectural form, carved in deep Gothic relief and retaining its original fifteenth-century gilding and paint. Each of the five facets is framed by buttressed uprights and enriched with pierced tracery above a register of blind cinquefoil arcading. Behind the openwork foliate forms lie painted blue grounds ornamented with scrolling designs, a decorative technique characteristic of Burgundian-Netherlandish workshop practice, intended to evoke translucent enamel or stained glass.
One side forms the original hinged door, opening to reveal a red-painted cavity which would have contained a small devotional sculpture, a relic, or the reserved Host. The medieval iron hinge survives, together with an early latch. The original openwork cresting with crocketed finials remains intact above. The entire object is carved in softwood, finished in water gilding over red bole; all principal paint layers appear original and unrestored, with expected devotional wear to projecting elements.
Portable five-sided tabernacles of this period very rarely survive in complete and unmutilated condition, most being destroyed or stripped of their polychromy during post-Reformation reform.
An exceptional survival of late-medieval domestic devotion, retaining its original architectural form, Gothic cresting, and untouched polychromy.
CONDITION
The tabernacle survives in unusually original condition for a mid-fifteenth-century devotional object. The water gilding and painted polychromy are substantially intact, with expected wear and small losses to projecting carved elements. Minor rubbing to the cresting and high points is consistent with historic handling and devotional use. The blue painted grounds beneath the tracery retain strong colour and show no evidence of later overpainting. The original medieval hinge remains functional. The structure is stable, with no signs of later reconstruction, inserted elements, or modern repaint. No areas of the gilding appear to have been regilded or toned. Surface dirt and natural oxidation have been left undisturbed to preserve the historic finish.
In summary: Minor losses throughout, structurally sound, and retaining untouched medieval surfaces with authentic devotional wear.