A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED SATINWOOD, PADOUK, AMARANTH, TULIPWOOD AND MARQUETRY SERPENTINE COMMODE
A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED SATINWOOD, PADOUK, AMARANTH, TULIPWOOD AND MARQUETRY SERPENTINE COMMODE
1 More
These lots have been imported from outside the EU … Read more THE HAREWOOD HOUSE 'SALOON' COMMODE PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED SATINWOOD, PADOUK, AMARANTH, TULIPWOOD AND MARQUETRY SERPENTINE COMMODE

BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1770 - 72

Details
A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED SATINWOOD, PADOUK, AMARANTH, TULIPWOOD AND MARQUETRY SERPENTINE COMMODE
BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1770 - 72
The crossbanded top inlaid with an oval medallion centred by a floret roundel and alternating pendant husks and foliage, and with further ribbon-tied foliate swags, scrolls and anthemion borders, above a central door inlaid with a circular floret medallion within ribbon-tied pendant husk borders and florets, enclosing a later shelf, flanked to each side by three short drawers inlaid with pendant husks and medallions, the sides with oval panels, the apron with a swagged urn clasp, above a pierced apron centred by an urn, the angles headed by swagged rams' masks above husk trails, the splayed legs with hoof sabost, the handles replaced, labelled to the reverse 'LEEDS CITY ART GALLERY/ AND/ TEMPLE NEWSAM HOUSE/ EXHIBITION/ NO.: COMMODE/ OWNER: HAREWOOD HOUSE'
34 ½ in. (88 cm.) high; 60 ½ in. (153.5 cm.) wide; 25 ¼ in. (64 cm.) deep
Provenance
Supplied circa 1770 - 72
by Thomas Chippendale to Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, for the 'Saloon' at Harewood House, Yorkshire
Acquired directly from the 7th Earl of Harewood, K.B.E. in the 1960s and thence by descent.
Literature
1795 Inventory for Harewood House, p. 30.
C. Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite Furniture, London, 1966, fig. 118.
C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 198 and vol. II, fig 228.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994.
Exhibited
Leeds, An exhibition of furniture by, and in the manner of, Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779), organised by the Leeds Art Collections Fund, Leeds, 1951, no. 10.
Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Brought to you by

Gillian Ward
Gillian Ward

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

Sign in
View condition report

Lot Essay

THE CHIPPENDALE COMMISSION

Harewood House, Yorkshire, was by far the largest, most prestigious and valuable commission that Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779), furniture designer and master craftsman, would undertake. In its execution he excelled, producing some of the finest furniture of his career, and fully embracing the new neo-classical vision with his employment of 'antique' ornament. The work at Harewood House would take eleven years to complete and would cost in excess of £10,000; it is partially detailed in an invoice running to fifteen foolscap pages, and a Day Work Book covering the period 1769-76. The commission included not only furniture but upholstery, wall hangings, curtains and even a carved model for a stove to be cast by the local founder! After Chippendale’s death in 1779, his son, Chippendale the Younger (d. 1822), was still active at Harewood House, invoicing pier tables for the Gallery as late as 1796.

The commode is part of the distinguished marquetry furniture commissioned by Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood (d. 1795) from Chippendale, as part of the refurbishment of his 'new house at Gawthorpe' (Harewood House) between 1767 and 1778. The commode was probably intended for the 'Saloon’ on the principal floor, and was supplied in the same period as a fall-front secretaire and small dressing commode (Gilbert, op. cit., vol. I, p. 198 and vol. II, fig. 228). Christopher Gilbert refers to this commode as, a 'commode, also in satinwood, crossbanded with tulipwood… no longer at Harewood House, but appears on the evidence of timber and style (particularly the radiating medallion and the wreaths) to belong to the same group'. He initially identifies the commode as being supplied in the period 1770 - 72, though also alludes to the possibility that it was delivered at a later date. The commode doesn’t appear in the Chippendale account (1772-1777) for Harewood but this is incomplete; the extant invoice totals £6,839 but an earlier bill for £3,024 mentioned in 1772 is now lost. The commode is listed in the 1795 inventory but its precise whereabouts are not recorded. At this point in time furniture was being moved, some of it to storage, and in an 1801 amendment to the inventory one commode is crossed out.

THE 'MODERN' STYLE

Referred to in contemporary terms as the ‘Modern' style, the commode draws its roots from French commodes of breakfront form invented in the late 1750s by influential cabinet-makers Jean-François and Simon Oeben. It is similar to a commode formerly in the collection of William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, at The Hill, Hampstead, that in turn compares to the 'Stanmer group’ of furniture, attributed to Swedish cabinet-makers, such as Georg Haupt (d. 1784) and Christopher Fuhrlohg (d. after 1787) who came to London via Paris disseminating French designs to London-based cabinet-makers (L. Wood, op. cit., p. 141, no. 13). The geometric ornamentation, ram's head corner and classical urn apron mounts exemplify the neo-classicism fashionable in the 1770s, which was fully exploited by Chippendale in the exceptional Diana and Minerva commode, supplied in 1773 for the State Dressing room at Harewood House, and the Renishaw commode, of circa 1775 (Gilbert, op. cit., vol. II, figs. 232-236). However, this 'transitional' commode retains some elements from the Rococo, the serpentine form, shaped apron and cabriole supports terminating in sabots suggesting the influence of Chippendale the Younger. The ormolu corner mounts are of the same pattern as those on a 'Boulle' bureau mazarin acquired by Lord and Lady Londonderry, probably while travelling through Paris in 1819 (sold Christie's, London, 23 May 2013, lot 445) and Chippendale senior was certainly involved in trade with France being apprehended by customs officials in 1769 for attempting to import sixty chair-frames. He supplied a related scarlet tortoiseshell bureau in 1759 to Dumfries House (Christie's sale catalogue, 12 July 2007, lot 53) and it is quite possible therefore that he acquired the mounts for the Harewood commode in France.

During the 1770s only a limited number of London-based cabinet-makers were capable of executing such accomplished marquetry in the French and neoclassical styles; Chippendale is regarded as the master and the ornamentation of the present commode is quintessentially Chippendale. The use of small-scale medallions that depended for their effect on the contrast of light and dark woods is characteristic of his work. Very similar decoration is found on a circular rent table, by Chippendale the Younger, in the Picture Gallery at Stourhead, Wiltshire, which has closely related olive wreaths, and identical florets, within framed borders, and crossbanding (National Trust 731558).
;

More from The Exceptional Sale 2014

View All
View All