This handsome multi-purpose dressing-commode writing-desk displays an extremely unusual drawer configuration that is clearly inspired - with its two deep drawers to the sides - by Japanese Export lacquer cabinets of the late 17th and early 18th Century. With its rare proportions, being less than 18 inches deep, it may perhaps have been conceived for a specific spot in an architectural scheme, as was the case with the pair of commodes supplied to Sir William Baker for Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire by 1762, which were placed in the window bays (illustrated in situ in P. Macquoid, R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, vol.II, p.49, fig.48). With its exceptional quality, sobre design and dependence on the restrained but at that time costly use of mahogany for effect, this chest reflects the tastes of furniture supplied to Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Prime Minister of England for Houghton Hall, Norfolk in the 1730's.