BY INCE & MAYHEW, CIRCA 1775

This commode and the others listed below display in various combinations three features found in much of Mayhew and Ince's documented work and now identifiable as characteristic of their style - the idiosyncratic use of yew-wood as a veneer which is a recurrent theme over more than 30 years of their work, for example in the Broadlands commission (see: H. Roberts, 'Furniture at Broadlands, Part II', Country Life, 5 February 1981, pp. 346-347); ebonised borders and mouldings (also found in the Broadlands commission); and marquetry incorporating foliate scrolls or clasps, relying on subtle engraving for effect, often combined with floral sprays, similar to the end-cut marquetry of BVRB (as on all the commodes below except 5). The effect of the latter (floral sprays) is unusual, as it is often hardly distinguishable from the veneer and on this commode it has been etched to heighten the contrast. These motifs are especially typical of the firm's work of the 1760s. All three features are found on a pair of card-tables supplied in 1764 to Sir Brook Bridges, Bt., at Goodnestone Park, Canterbury (exhibited in Treasures from Kent Houses, The Royal Museum, Canterbury, 23 September - 13 October 1984, no. 56); the ebonised borders, engraved foliage and end-cut marquetry, this time on a satinwood ground, appear on the pair of rectangular commodes supplied to the 6th Earl of Coventry in 1764 for Coventry House (see: A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl. 119), where, in contrast, the same elements are used to create a strikingly neo-classical effect.

The group of rococo yew-wood and marquetry commodes includes the following examples:
1. A commode sold by Olaf Hambro, Esq., Linton Park, Maidstone, Kent, Christie's house sale, 2-3 October 1961, lot 110 and subsequently sold by the late Mrs Charles Mills, Hilborough Hall, Norfolk, Christie's house sale, 21-23 October 1985, lot 73. It was most recently sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 5 July 1990, lot 141 (£99,000 including premium).
2. Sotheby's, London, 18 March 1966, lot 151, from the collection of Martin Summers, Esq., (illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl. 45). Incorrectly identified in the Sotheby's catalogue as the Linton commode. This is identical to 1 in every respect except that it has foliate clasp foot-mounts (the same as those on 6 and now on this commode), which the Hilborough commode may also originally have had.
3. Formerly Lady Russell, illustrated in P. Macquoid, The Age of Satinwood, London, 1908, pl. 11. The form is identical but the photogravure illustration shows a plain burr-yew top and sides, possibly incorrectly.
4. Sotheby's, London, 2 December 1977, lot 93, from the collection of the late Margharita, Lady Howard de Walden, C.B.E. This is of very similar form to 1, 2 and 3 and is almost identically inlaid. In place of the various ormolu borders on the first three, it has plain ebonised mouldings and the angles copy exactly those of 1, 2 and 3 in ebonised wood.
5. Christie's, London, 11 November 1971, lot 91, from an English private collection. This is a small and plainer version of the above four, without the floral marquetry and with plain angles.
6. Metropolitan Museum, New York, (169250), formerly in the Donaldson collection and sold from the collection of Mrs Elmer T. Cunningham, Monterey, California, Parke Bernet, New York, 14 March 1959, lot 115 (illustrated in R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, rev. ed., vol. II, p. 117, fig. 19). Of the same conformation as 1-5 but smaller and more elaborately inlaid and mounted. 7. The late Sir Anthony de Rothschild, Bt., Aston Clinton, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, sold by order of his daughters Lady Battersea and the Hon. Mrs. Eliot Yorke, in these Rooms, 13-14 June 1923, lot 201 (£315 to M. Harris).
Bought from Moss Harris by 1st Viscount Leverhulme.
The late Viscount Leverhulme, The Hill, Hampstead, sold Anderson Galleries, New York, 9 February 1926 (=1st day), lot 338 ($4,000).
Lillian S. Whitmarsh, sold Parke Bernet, New York, 7 April 1961, lot 181 ($10,000).
Bought from Phillips of Hitchin at the Antique Dealers' Fair, 1961, and invoiced on 14 June for £11,250. Sir Michael Sobell, offered Christie’s, London, 23 June 1994, lot 77. The friezes of this and the Donaldson commode are similar to that of the Coventry House commodes.

These are the closest parallels but there are other related sub-groups using the same elements but with variations, usually of outline. These include two pairs of commodes probably dating from the early 1770s, smaller and inlaid with engraved scrolls. One pair was sold from the collection of Mrs Derek Fitzgerald, Sotheby's London, 5 July 1963, lot 156, and came originally from the Earls of Dysart; the other pair was sold at Christie's London, 29 November 1979, lot 102.