Religious Walnut Panel Transformed Into A Carving Table – Aveyron – 17th - 18th Century

I offer you a curiosity. It is a solid walnut panel decorated with a cross on a pedestal. It is enclosed in a large circle with a ball and crowned with a fleur-de-lys. The panel has four cut sides, two of which are decorated with a hollow engraved line (perhaps to call out the decoration that was on other panels). It is a work from the Louis XIV period. The particularity of this panel (from an altarpiece or a castle fireplace) is the fact that it was transformed in a more recent period into a cutting table. Three holes were drilled to put feet on it, the top was turned over and very many knife intaglios show that people used it as a cutting board. Perhaps during the French Revolution, the panel was dismantled from an altarpiece, then reused in a much more profane function. Aveyron sausages and cheeses must have paraded on this panel! Popular art in its splendor. It should be noted that the panel which had a crack was repaired a long time ago with a large nailed metal blade. 81x43.5x3cm The panel was found on a farm in Aveyron, cleaned and then waxed.