Lot Essay
The commode tops, with 'Cupid's bow' front, rounded corners and serpentine sides, are ormolu-banded with reed gadroons in the antique manner. Each top is veneered with richly-polychromed mosaics of six black lacquer tablets incised with birds among flowering shrubs, and adapted from the upper border of a twelve-fold 17th Century Chinese screen (a related screen is illustrated in M. Harris, Catalogue of Antique Furniture, c. 1930, no. D4716). The tablets are wreathed or bordered by golden foliage flowered with peonies on a black-japanned ribbon-band. The commodes' serpentined frames, likewise ormolu- bordered and originally with foliate scrolls of Roman acanthus to the angle, are similarly japanned with flowered foliage in the Chinoiserie manner. The doors are veneered with two adjoining moulded panels, no doubt from the same Chinese screen. One depicts Chinese women watching children at play in a stately pavilioned pleasure-garden, while the other depicts women watching two peacocks. Their reeded ormolu frames are banded by Chinese dragon tablets and flowered mosaics. Their corresponding side panels, which are simply banded with lacquer fillets, portray entrance gates, including a circular 'Moongate'. The 'Harris' screen noted above featured related pleasure-garden scenes banded by a similar flowered mosaic border, while its outer border corresponds with the fillets banding the commodes' side panels.
This elegant pair of small commodes, with their serpentined form and ormolu mounts, is designed in the George III French 'picturesque' manner of the 1760s and exotically decorated in the Oriental fashion created by Parisian marchands-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier (d. 1785). The technique of serpenting lacquer panels appears to have been introduced to London in the early 1760s by Pierre Langlois (d. 1765), cabinet-maker of Tottenham Court Road, while the fashion for colourful lacquer screens reflects that introduced by East India Trading Companies in the late 17th Century and named 'Bantam' work after the Javanese trading post or 'Coromandel' after the Indian counterparts. The whimsical nature of this ornament, which had been extolled in Messrs. Stalker and Parker's Treatise of the Art of Japanning of 1688, was considered particularly appropriate for the enlivening of bedroom apartments. This pair of commodes would no doubt have formed part of the furnishings commissioned in the 1760s by Francis Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford (d. 1794) for a 'Chinese' bedroom apartment at Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, whose rooms might have been hung with Oriental papers decorated with exotic birds and flowering shrubs. It is also possible that the lacquer originally came from a screen that formed part of the collections formed by the marquess' ancestor Lord Conway, who built Ragley in the late 17th Century. Two other commodes of similar form, formerly at Ragley, also featured mosaic-panelled tops but their japanned and ormolu-mounted frames were decorated on one with golden lakeside pavilions, while the other incorporated polychromed lacquer panels with birds perched among flowering shrubs. These commodes were purchased with this pair in the 1921 sale.
The commodes also relate to a japanned and lacquer-veneered fallfront secretaire with ormolu-gadrooned edge that was formerly in the collection of the Earls of Shrewsbury and Talbot, at Alton Towers, Staffordshire (Harris, op. cit., p. 356, no. F9327). A japanned commode, of related form with reed-gadrooned top, was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1931 (D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1954, vol. II, p. 115). A pair of related marble-topped and lacquer-veneered commodes formerly at Ashburnham Place, Sussex was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 16 November 1995, lot 67.
The following is a translation taken from André-Jacob Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier Ebéniste, Paris, 1772, p.1020-1021, describing the use of Oriental lacquer as a veneer. Roubo (d.1791) was a menuisier- ébéniste and writer working in Paris in the latter half of the 18th Century.
'The lacquer panels ordinarily used by French ébénistes are taken from Chinese or Japanese cabinets or screens, whose panels or leaves are generally decorated on both sides, and separated through the middle in order to be suitably thin- (by being reduced with a plane) for use as veneer or general cabinet-work. Precautions have to be taken both while cutting the leaves and reducing the depth to prevent splitting or cracking the varnish; so they must be protected by cushions or woollen blankets while cutting in the vice. And the same care must be taken while planing the back; which requires placing them on the work-surface in a doubled over blanket, so that the irregular surface of the lacquer caused by the floral pattern or other ornaments is protected.
While reducing the thickness of the wood behind the Chinese lacquer or varnish, it is necessary to retain a certain thickness to prevent cracking; and when placing the lacquer veneer on the ground, it is necessary to heat both the lacquer and the ground, and protect the lacquer with blankets on which one places cushions or wooden wedges with 'goberges' or gluing - clamps as necessary; but never use 'valets', in case while fixing them by hitting the varnish would be damaged or split.
As far as possible, the joints of the lacquered works are to be surrounded by brass mounts or borders because, even with the precautions taken in cutting the lacquer leaves, it is almost impossible not to cause certain splits - which causes the joints to appear and looks unattractive.
In addition, even when one cuts the lacquer as cleanly as possible, the unmounted edges will soon get damaged, which always look bad.
The French imitation of Chinese varnish - as far as it has been possible until the present time - produces a more stable work than those veneered with lacquer. In the latter case, in other words when varnishing (japanning) furniture, it is necessary to construct the ground work with good quality and well-seasoned timber and with as much strength as possible, such as I have indicated in the course of their publication.
This elegant pair of small commodes, with their serpentined form and ormolu mounts, is designed in the George III French 'picturesque' manner of the 1760s and exotically decorated in the Oriental fashion created by Parisian marchands-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier (d. 1785). The technique of serpenting lacquer panels appears to have been introduced to London in the early 1760s by Pierre Langlois (d. 1765), cabinet-maker of Tottenham Court Road, while the fashion for colourful lacquer screens reflects that introduced by East India Trading Companies in the late 17th Century and named 'Bantam' work after the Javanese trading post or 'Coromandel' after the Indian counterparts. The whimsical nature of this ornament, which had been extolled in Messrs. Stalker and Parker's Treatise of the Art of Japanning of 1688, was considered particularly appropriate for the enlivening of bedroom apartments. This pair of commodes would no doubt have formed part of the furnishings commissioned in the 1760s by Francis Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford (d. 1794) for a 'Chinese' bedroom apartment at Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, whose rooms might have been hung with Oriental papers decorated with exotic birds and flowering shrubs. It is also possible that the lacquer originally came from a screen that formed part of the collections formed by the marquess' ancestor Lord Conway, who built Ragley in the late 17th Century. Two other commodes of similar form, formerly at Ragley, also featured mosaic-panelled tops but their japanned and ormolu-mounted frames were decorated on one with golden lakeside pavilions, while the other incorporated polychromed lacquer panels with birds perched among flowering shrubs. These commodes were purchased with this pair in the 1921 sale.
The commodes also relate to a japanned and lacquer-veneered fallfront secretaire with ormolu-gadrooned edge that was formerly in the collection of the Earls of Shrewsbury and Talbot, at Alton Towers, Staffordshire (Harris, op. cit., p. 356, no. F9327). A japanned commode, of related form with reed-gadrooned top, was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1931 (D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1954, vol. II, p. 115). A pair of related marble-topped and lacquer-veneered commodes formerly at Ashburnham Place, Sussex was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 16 November 1995, lot 67.
The following is a translation taken from André-Jacob Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier Ebéniste, Paris, 1772, p.1020-1021, describing the use of Oriental lacquer as a veneer. Roubo (d.1791) was a menuisier- ébéniste and writer working in Paris in the latter half of the 18th Century.
'The lacquer panels ordinarily used by French ébénistes are taken from Chinese or Japanese cabinets or screens, whose panels or leaves are generally decorated on both sides, and separated through the middle in order to be suitably thin- (by being reduced with a plane) for use as veneer or general cabinet-work. Precautions have to be taken both while cutting the leaves and reducing the depth to prevent splitting or cracking the varnish; so they must be protected by cushions or woollen blankets while cutting in the vice. And the same care must be taken while planing the back; which requires placing them on the work-surface in a doubled over blanket, so that the irregular surface of the lacquer caused by the floral pattern or other ornaments is protected.
While reducing the thickness of the wood behind the Chinese lacquer or varnish, it is necessary to retain a certain thickness to prevent cracking; and when placing the lacquer veneer on the ground, it is necessary to heat both the lacquer and the ground, and protect the lacquer with blankets on which one places cushions or wooden wedges with 'goberges' or gluing - clamps as necessary; but never use 'valets', in case while fixing them by hitting the varnish would be damaged or split.
As far as possible, the joints of the lacquered works are to be surrounded by brass mounts or borders because, even with the precautions taken in cutting the lacquer leaves, it is almost impossible not to cause certain splits - which causes the joints to appear and looks unattractive.
In addition, even when one cuts the lacquer as cleanly as possible, the unmounted edges will soon get damaged, which always look bad.
The French imitation of Chinese varnish - as far as it has been possible until the present time - produces a more stable work than those veneered with lacquer. In the latter case, in other words when varnishing (japanning) furniture, it is necessary to construct the ground work with good quality and well-seasoned timber and with as much strength as possible, such as I have indicated in the course of their publication.