This design and exceptional quality of this chest-of-drawers corresponds exactly to that of the 'Exceeding fine Serpentine Commode Dressing Tables' supplied in 1763 for Edward, 5th Lord Leigh's bedroom apartments at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, by Messrs William & Richard Gomm, cabinet-makers and upholsterers of Clerkenwell Close, London. While this type of 'French commode table' featured in Thomas Chippendale's, Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, to which Richard Gomm (d.1794) subscribed, a very closely related design can be found amongst William Gomm's sketch book of 1761, now in the Winterthur Library, Delaware, USA. The canted acanthus-enriched and scrolled 'trusses' of this chest-of-drawers would have harmonised with the Louis XV-style chimney-pieces that were so fashionable in bedroom apartments of the mid-18th Century. It relates most closely to the pair supplied at a cost of ¨12 each for one of the apartments at Stoneleigh (sold from there in these Rooms, 3 May 1962, lot 53); but the particular acanthus embossment at the base of the truss relates to a more ornate example, no doubt from the state apartment, and whose additional floral carving cost an extra ¨3 (sold in these Rooms, 3 May 1962, lot 54). It seems probable that this chest-of-drawers constitutes one of the second pair of commodes, supplied at ¨12 each. (See: L. Boynton, 'William and Richard Gomm', Burlington Magazines, June 1980, fig.33).