IMPRESSED TWICE S.H. RUSSELL, 19TH CENTURY

The current commode belongs to a body of closely related commodes discussed at length by Lucy Wood in The Lady Lever Art Gallery; Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1992, cat. no. 39. Each commode has the same marquetry inlaid urn within a wreath-surround to the front door and fixed side panels, though the example in the Lady Lever Gallery now lacks the festoon-hung frieze. In addition to the Lady Lever commode, this group includes: a nearly identical example in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (ibid, fig. 265); one formerly in the possession of Mallett's, London (ibid, fig. 266); another identified as in the Collection of Alfred Littleton, Esq., which may or may not be identical with the Ontario commode (illustrated in The Age of Satinwood, New York, 1908, color plate X); and the current commode when it was previously offered in these Rooms in 1991 where it was catalogued as 19th Century and restored (ibid, p. 297). Lucy Wood cites similarities in the construction and decoration of these commodes, raising the possibility that all of these commodes are of 18th Century origin though she goes on to note that is has been suggested that the Ontario commode may also date to the 19th Century (Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, p. 298). While it is of exceptional quality, the present commode appears to be of 19th Century manufacture. The name 'S.H. Russell' impressed on the back has not been identified to date.