The commode's elliptic front, with projecting Pompeiian palm-capped pillars, corresponds to pattern for a 'Commode Dressing Table' issued in Thomas Sheraton's, Cabinet-Maker's and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793, Part II, pl. 25. Sheraton also advised that 'The style of finishing these tables is neat. They are often made of satin-wood and banded'. Amongst the subscribers to the Drawing Book was the St. Paul's Churchyard cabinetmaker George Simson, whose name has been associated with a number of pieces of Sheraton style furniture featuring satinwood veneer (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p.50).