The commode, with its sacred urn, tablet and medallions reflects the George III Roman fashion promoted by architects such as Robert Adam (d.1792) and James Wyatt (d.1813). The flowered arabesque tablet is inlaid on the elliptic-fronted top within a scalloped medallion, that is accompanied by sunflowers and laurel festoons and recalls the triumph of the sun deity Apollo as god of poetry. The façade has antique flutes inlaid in its cornice, while the festive-garlanded urn is accompanied by laurel-wreaths and 'arabesque' sunflowered medallions. The various elements feature in a pattern-book issued in 1779 by Thomas Chippendale Junior (d. 1822) in the year of his father's death and entitled Sketches of Ornament (see C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol.II, figs. 28-31 and 33). A related 'Commode Top' pattern 'inriched with inlaid ... work' featured in Messrs A. Hepplwhite & Co's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, as does a 'draped-urn' medallion (pl. 78). Trompe l'oeil flutes were fashionable ornament around 1780, and appear to have been one of the features adopted at Messrs Ince & Mayhew's Soho establishment before being introduced to Dublin by their pupil, the celebrated Irish 'Inlayer and Cabinet-maker' William Moore (d.1815), who opened his premises in Abbey Street, Dublin in the early 1780s. The handle pattern of wreathed medallions was also adopted by the London and Lancaster firm of Gillows in the 1780s.