Lot Essay
The commode chest-of-drawers, with its serpentined forms enriched with flowers and foliage, is designed in the French style introduced around 1770 by the St. Martin's Lane cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779). Its refined elegance evolved from patterns engraved in 1753 for a 'French Commode Table' and issued then in Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, pl. LXVI. Designed for a window-pier, its top drawer is fitted with a dressing-table slide.
The commode pattern corresponds exactly to commodes which are likely to have been commissioned in 1771 by Daniel Lascelles (d. 1784). The direct evidence that Chippendale supplied furniture to Daniel Lascelles at Goldsborough is provided by references in the Day Work Book and correspondence of Samuel Popelwell, the steward at Harewood, to Chippendale's foreman William Reid having made trips to Goldsborough in 1771-6 (Gilbert, op. cit., vol. I, p. 258). Like the Goldsborough commodes, the Ham commode is executed in superbly figured mahogany with Chippendale's serpentine-shafted locks. Its ormolu handles festooned from patera medallions correspond to those of Chippendale's related commode supplied for Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (ibid., vol. II, fig. 227). There is a small difference in the line of the serpentine aprons between the Goldsborough commodes and the Ham commode but it is interesting that the profile on the latter is the same as on the Nostell commode with which it shares handles.
The Goldsborough commodes were moved to Harewood House after 1925 and are now in Lord Harewood's sitting room. Harewood House is open to the public from April to October.
JOHN MARTIN AND HAM COURT
The commode was almost certainly commissioned by the banker John Martin (d. 1794) for the Palladian villa, Ham Court, Worcestershire which he had built by the Gloucestershire architect Anthony Keck (d. 1797). Martin had married in 1761 Judith, daughter of William Bromley (1685-1756), heiress to the Ham Court estate at Upton-upon-Severn. Although it has not been possible to trace any furniture bills in the surviving Martin papers deposited in Worcester County Records Office, the Martin family bank ledgers (kept in the Martin's bank archives of Barclays bank) concerning the personal account of John Martin (extant only for the years 1784-6) reveals a highly significant payment on 8 May 1786 to 'Haig & Co,' for £23 7s (ref. SA 89/2). Christopher Gilbert considers it likely that patrons of Haig and Co. (as Chippendale's firm was called after his death in 1779) had in many cases also been patrons of the firm in Chippendale's lifetime. Certainly John Martin, embarking in 1772 in a new house at Ham, following his inheritance of the estate through his wife, looks a very promising candidate for patronage of Chippendale in the early 1770s, and the relatively modest payment in 1786 does suggest the tail end of a commission. Further support for a commission in the early 1770s comes from a magnificent library table in Chippendale's style of circa 1770 that was sold in the same sale in 1924 as this commode, lot 81, and again by Lord St. Just, in these Rooms, 19 June 1980, lot 140.
The commode pattern corresponds exactly to commodes which are likely to have been commissioned in 1771 by Daniel Lascelles (d. 1784). The direct evidence that Chippendale supplied furniture to Daniel Lascelles at Goldsborough is provided by references in the Day Work Book and correspondence of Samuel Popelwell, the steward at Harewood, to Chippendale's foreman William Reid having made trips to Goldsborough in 1771-6 (Gilbert, op. cit., vol. I, p. 258). Like the Goldsborough commodes, the Ham commode is executed in superbly figured mahogany with Chippendale's serpentine-shafted locks. Its ormolu handles festooned from patera medallions correspond to those of Chippendale's related commode supplied for Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (ibid., vol. II, fig. 227). There is a small difference in the line of the serpentine aprons between the Goldsborough commodes and the Ham commode but it is interesting that the profile on the latter is the same as on the Nostell commode with which it shares handles.
The Goldsborough commodes were moved to Harewood House after 1925 and are now in Lord Harewood's sitting room. Harewood House is open to the public from April to October.
JOHN MARTIN AND HAM COURT
The commode was almost certainly commissioned by the banker John Martin (d. 1794) for the Palladian villa, Ham Court, Worcestershire which he had built by the Gloucestershire architect Anthony Keck (d. 1797). Martin had married in 1761 Judith, daughter of William Bromley (1685-1756), heiress to the Ham Court estate at Upton-upon-Severn. Although it has not been possible to trace any furniture bills in the surviving Martin papers deposited in Worcester County Records Office, the Martin family bank ledgers (kept in the Martin's bank archives of Barclays bank) concerning the personal account of John Martin (extant only for the years 1784-6) reveals a highly significant payment on 8 May 1786 to 'Haig & Co,' for £23 7s (ref. SA 89/2). Christopher Gilbert considers it likely that patrons of Haig and Co. (as Chippendale's firm was called after his death in 1779) had in many cases also been patrons of the firm in Chippendale's lifetime. Certainly John Martin, embarking in 1772 in a new house at Ham, following his inheritance of the estate through his wife, looks a very promising candidate for patronage of Chippendale in the early 1770s, and the relatively modest payment in 1786 does suggest the tail end of a commission. Further support for a commission in the early 1770s comes from a magnificent library table in Chippendale's style of circa 1770 that was sold in the same sale in 1924 as this commode, lot 81, and again by Lord St. Just, in these Rooms, 19 June 1980, lot 140.