THE DUNDAS COMMODES
By Peter Thornton
There have been two great phases of naturalistic floral marquetry in the history of European furniture. The first lasted from about 1670 until 1710. The second, which blossomed around 1745 and lasted into the 1770s, seems to have evolved in the Parisian atelier of the German-born ébéniste Jean-François Oeben, who had a workshop in the Louvre and executed much work for the French Crown and aristocracy.
The pair of commodes from the Dundas Collection, which in all probablity originally formed part of the furnishing of the Tapestry Gallery at Moor Park, are supreme examples of the Oeben style of marquetry decoration, yet they were made in England. They come from the Tottenham Court Road workshops of Pierre Langlois, a French cabinet-maker who was already well established in this country by 1759 when he was supplying furniture for the Duke of Bedford, including a handsome commode decorated with floral marquetry, clearly from the same stable as that of the Dundas pair. Langlois' trade-card advertises the fact that he specialised in furniture with floral inlay 'inscrutez de fleurs en Bois'. It seems inconceivable that he had not spent some while during the first half of the 1750s in Oeben's workshop before coming to London.
It says much for the discrimination of the largely aristocratic patrons who took the trouble to secure specimens of Langlois' productions, that they appreciated the novelty of this marquetry formula. Others, who should have known better, did not, for when a Swedish cabinet-maker named Carl Petter Dahlström returned to Stockholm in 1755 after having been chef d'atelier in Oeben's workshop (or so he claimed), the officers of the local guild refused to allow him to practice in the city and produce similar marquetry because they saw it as an expression of the taste of the 1690s which had long been out of date.
The Dundas commodes belong to a group which centre round the superb commode in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, made by Langlois for the Earl of Coventry's country residence at Croome Court. His bill is dated 20th July 1764. Sir Lawrence Dundas' pair differ directly from the Earl's in having a drawer above the doors forming the front panels which slightly alters the proportions of the front. Otherwise all three pieces are very similar to each other, and they must all be of about the same date. Langlois' house style developed into the 1770s away from the rather ponderous but magnificent forms of his early 'English' manner, in a direction that conformed more closely to the new taste that preferred less flamboyant lineaments and cooler ornament in the classical vein.
Langlois traded at 'The Sign of the Commode Table' and described the commode he supplied to the Duke of Bedford in 1764 in the same terms. This is a reminder that this class of sumptuous case-furniture, which was designed to stand against a window-pier under a large pier-glass, was an alternative form to the open-framed pier-table and began to make its appearance in grand settings in Paris late in the 17th Century. Indeed, a Berlin source in 1727 explained that 'the so-called Parisian commode [is] a sort of bureau [i.e. writing-desk with drawers] or rather table beneath the glass'. Sheraton (in 1803) says that they were 'chiefly for ornament, to stand under a glass in a drawing room'; he might have added 'or in a gallery or grand bed chamber' (the Croome Court commode stood in the Earl of Coventry's bedroom and was essentially a very glamorous clothes-press). In 1768 the London cabinet-maker James Cullen, helping the Earl of Hopetoun to furnish his large house near Edinburgh, explained that commodes 'in grand apartments are more intended to furnish and adorn than for real use'. There can anyway be no doubt that the Dundas commodes are highly ornamental. They are also superb examples of London cabinet-making, as witness the neatness of their interior finish (a neatness not usually found inside Parisian equivalents at the time) and the presence of features like dust boards and tidy locks. But what marks them most as characteristically English is the fact that their tops are decorated with marquetry - a feature rarely found on French commodes although it was commoner in Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. It is, of course, a feature that provides an additional large expanse on which elaborate marquetry can be deployed. Langlois exploited this to the full in his oeuvre, although he did sometimes furnish his commodes with marble slabs.
Did Langlois himself execute marquetry work or did he, already from the outset of his London enterprise, engage a specialist for this intricate activity, just as he had a specialist bronze-caster and gilder in the form of Dominique Jean, working in his Tottenham Court Road premises? The name of one Zurn is engraved on a depicted book of music included in the marquetry top on one of a pair of commodes at The Vyne, Hampshire which must come from Langlois' establishment and could very well be that of such a specialist. But the Vyne pieces are less ebullient than those in the Croome Court - Dundas group and thier marquetry is rather tame in comparison, so the Vyne pieces are likely to be of rather later date. Tantalisingly, we know very little about Zurn. For the time being we must assume that Langlois himself worked up the marquetry applied to the firm's early London products. Later he is likely to have employed others to execute this class of work.
Whatever the case, the Dundas Commodes must be regarded as a most satisfactory melding of high-quality French and English cabinet-making practice from the middle years of the 18th Century - a felicitous time indeed for the production of sumptuous and elegant furniture if ever there was one.
A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD, SABICU AND MARQUETRY BOMBE COMMODES
BY PIERRE LANGLOIS, THE MOUNTS ATTRIBUTED TO DOMINIQUE JEAN
Details
A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD, SABICU AND MARQUETRY BOMBE COMMODES
By Pierre Langlois, the mounts attributed to Dominique Jean
Each with a brass-bordered and crossbanded serpentine top, the crossbanding bordered with amaranth and boxwood lines, inlaid with a ribbon-tied musical trophy including a part brass-inlaid basoon and lyre and sheets of music entwined with flowers flanked by delicate sprays on a quartered sabicu ground, the marquetry in end-cut amaranth and carefully chosen, fitted with a drawer mounted with rocaille and cartouche handles framing a lockplate on a crossbanded ground, above two shaped doors each inlaid with sprays of delicate flowers issuing from a ribbon-tie in the lower outer corner, the reverse of the doors veneered with sabicu, one enclosing two later shelves edged with sabicu and kingwood, the other with a central division and four shelves edged with amaranth, the keeled angles mounted with rich upspringing palm fronds centred by cabochons and husks, the sides each with two mirror-figured panels inlaid with ribbon-tied sprays, one commode marked 'X' and the other 'II', with all constructional joints similarly marked, the underside and back blackened, the inside of the drawer front reddened, commode 'X' lacking some pieces of marquetry veneer to the top, commode 'II' lacking a 3 7/8 in. (10 cm.) piece of upper brass border from the top of the door, the lower right-hand mount on the left-hand door replaced
59 in. (150 cm.) wide; 33¾ in. (85.5 cm.) high; 24½ in. (62.5 cm.) deep (2)
By Pierre Langlois, the mounts attributed to Dominique Jean
Each with a brass-bordered and crossbanded serpentine top, the crossbanding bordered with amaranth and boxwood lines, inlaid with a ribbon-tied musical trophy including a part brass-inlaid basoon and lyre and sheets of music entwined with flowers flanked by delicate sprays on a quartered sabicu ground, the marquetry in end-cut amaranth and carefully chosen, fitted with a drawer mounted with rocaille and cartouche handles framing a lockplate on a crossbanded ground, above two shaped doors each inlaid with sprays of delicate flowers issuing from a ribbon-tie in the lower outer corner, the reverse of the doors veneered with sabicu, one enclosing two later shelves edged with sabicu and kingwood, the other with a central division and four shelves edged with amaranth, the keeled angles mounted with rich upspringing palm fronds centred by cabochons and husks, the sides each with two mirror-figured panels inlaid with ribbon-tied sprays, one commode marked 'X' and the other 'II', with all constructional joints similarly marked, the underside and back blackened, the inside of the drawer front reddened, commode 'X' lacking some pieces of marquetry veneer to the top, commode 'II' lacking a 3 7/8 in. (10 cm.) piece of upper brass border from the top of the door, the lower right-hand mount on the left-hand door replaced
59 in. (150 cm.) wide; 33¾ in. (85.5 cm.) high; 24½ in. (62.5 cm.) deep (2)
Provenance
Supplied to Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt., circa 1765, probably for the Tapestry Gallery, Moor Park, Hertfordshire.
Thence by descent.
Thence by descent.
Literature
A. Coleridge, 'Langlois, his Oeuvre and Some Recent Discoveries, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, September 1967, pp. 155-161.
A. Coleridge, 'Sir Lawrence Dundas and Chippendale, Apollo, Vol. LXXXVI, September 1967, pp. 190-203.
A. Coleridge, 'Some Rococo Cabinet-Makers and Sir Lawrence Dundas,' Apollo, Vol. LXXXVI September 1967, pp. 214-225.
A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, The Work of Thomas Chippendale and his Contemporaries in the Rococo Taste, London, 1968, pp. 36, 179, plate 51.
P. Thornton and W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois Ebéniste', I. II, III & IV, Connoisseur, Vol. 177 December 1971, Vol. 179, February, March, April & May 1972, pp. 105-112, 178, 283-88.
A. Coleridge, 'Sir Lawrence Dundas and Chippendale, Apollo, Vol. LXXXVI, September 1967, pp. 190-203.
A. Coleridge, 'Some Rococo Cabinet-Makers and Sir Lawrence Dundas,' Apollo, Vol. LXXXVI September 1967, pp. 214-225.
A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, The Work of Thomas Chippendale and his Contemporaries in the Rococo Taste, London, 1968, pp. 36, 179, plate 51.
P. Thornton and W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois Ebéniste', I. II, III & IV, Connoisseur, Vol. 177 December 1971, Vol. 179, February, March, April & May 1972, pp. 105-112, 178, 283-88.
Further details
THE DUNDAS COMMODES
Sir Lawrence Dundas's pair of elegantly serpentined 'commode-tables' epitomise the French picturesque fashion that was introduced to King George III's court by the cabinet-maker ébéniste Pierre Langlois (d.1767) of Tottenham Court Road, and popularised through Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762.
Accompanied by ormolu frames and enrichments of gold Roman acanthus foliage and bordered by exotic kingwood, they are colourfully inlaid with tablets of ribbon-tied poesies and pastoral trophies celebrating the triumph of lyric poetry. Each brass-banded top displays a rayed and antique-lozenged compartment, recalling the flowered coffering of the Temple of Venus, Rome, and is inlaid with flowered sprigs accompanying a lyre (one veneered in dark wood and the other in light wood). This is displayed against palm and laurel branches that recall the Arcadian triumph of Apollo, god of Poetry and Music, and are hung from ring-chains together with a flute and open book of music. The flowers and trompe l'oeil tophies are inlaid, like contemporary Italian scagliola slabs, and the ornament would have been copied from Parisian engravings like those issued by the London print-seller François Vivares, who advertised around 1760 a large stock of 'The Best Borders, Festoons and Trophies' (H. Hayward, 'A Fine Pair of Commodes by John Linnell', Partridge Summer Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1985, pp. 30-33 and 50-51). Amongst the specialist inlayers of the period is the craftsman Zurn, whose name features on a music-book that is inlaid on one of a pair of similarly mounted and inlaid commodes which Langlois is thought to have provided in the mid-1760s for the Francophile John Chute (d.1780) at The Vyne, Hampshire (C. Gilbert, Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 Leeds, 1996, pp. 57 and 502). These commodes not only relate to one illustrated on the Langlois trade-card of the 1750s, but can also be demonstrated to have evolved from the 'inlaid commode table' supplied in 1760 to John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford (d.1771), who exchanged his London house with that of the French ambassador while serving as King George III's ambassador at the Court of Louis XV. The Bedford commode is likewise inlaid with a pastoral trophy; while its façade recalls Ovid's Metamorphoses concerning the history of the fertility goddess Flora, and is strewn with festive flowers and centred by a golden mask of her companion, the west wind Zephyr. His mask likewise featured on a design, attributed to Langlois, for a commode with similar acanthus-wrapped legs as appear on this group of bombé-fronted commodes.
The Dundas commodes are likely to have been commissioned at the same time as a commode that Langlois supplied in 1764 under the direction of the architect Robert Adam (d.1792) for the 6th Earl of Coventry at Croome Court, Worcestershire.
In the middle of the eighteenth-century, the highly decorative French commode, or 'commode-table' as it was called, was used to furnish the window-piers of fashionable drawing rooms as well as those of the bedroom apartments. Langlois, trading at the 'Sign of a commode table' was the foremost manufacturer of such flower-encrusted furniture. In particular, he imitated the fashion of kingwood flower-sprays, veneered in the bois de bout manner with dark cross-grain figuring on a rayed tulipwood ground. One such piece was the secretaire-bookcase supplied for Louis XV at the Trianon by the marchand mercier Lazare Duvaux. This is attributed to the ébéniste Bernard Vanrisamburgh (after 1696-c.1766), who adopted the furniture stamp B.V.R.B. and was particularly celebrated for this form of ormolu-mounted and richly inlaid furniture (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, London, 1989, p.189, fig. 190).
Another Parisian ébéniste working in the fashion adopted by Langlois was Jacques-Philippe Carel (elected maître in 1723), whose work was sometimes acquired through the marchand mercier Callery of the rue de la Monnaie. For instance, an elegantly serpentined form of lady's desk or secretaire en pente, manufactured by Langlois, follows the pattern of one of Carel's desks supplied in 1751 for the Versailles apartments of Mesdames Sophie et Louise de France by François Antoine Gaudreaus (d.1753) (P. Thornton and W. Rieder, Pierre Langlois, Ebéniste, pt.V, May, 1972, fig.2 and A. Pradère, op.cit., p.143, fig.113). Another bureau, signed by Carel, relates to one that was formerly in the collection of the Duke of Sussex, and is inlaid with a musical trophy that virtually repeats those of the Dundas commodes (Thornton, op. cit., Connoisseur, pt.IV, April, 1972, p.257, figs.1 and 2).
Sir Lawrence Dundas's pair of elegantly serpentined 'commode-tables' epitomise the French picturesque fashion that was introduced to King George III's court by the cabinet-maker ébéniste Pierre Langlois (d.1767) of Tottenham Court Road, and popularised through Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762.
Accompanied by ormolu frames and enrichments of gold Roman acanthus foliage and bordered by exotic kingwood, they are colourfully inlaid with tablets of ribbon-tied poesies and pastoral trophies celebrating the triumph of lyric poetry. Each brass-banded top displays a rayed and antique-lozenged compartment, recalling the flowered coffering of the Temple of Venus, Rome, and is inlaid with flowered sprigs accompanying a lyre (one veneered in dark wood and the other in light wood). This is displayed against palm and laurel branches that recall the Arcadian triumph of Apollo, god of Poetry and Music, and are hung from ring-chains together with a flute and open book of music. The flowers and trompe l'oeil tophies are inlaid, like contemporary Italian scagliola slabs, and the ornament would have been copied from Parisian engravings like those issued by the London print-seller François Vivares, who advertised around 1760 a large stock of 'The Best Borders, Festoons and Trophies' (H. Hayward, 'A Fine Pair of Commodes by John Linnell', Partridge Summer Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1985, pp. 30-33 and 50-51). Amongst the specialist inlayers of the period is the craftsman Zurn, whose name features on a music-book that is inlaid on one of a pair of similarly mounted and inlaid commodes which Langlois is thought to have provided in the mid-1760s for the Francophile John Chute (d.1780) at The Vyne, Hampshire (C. Gilbert, Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 Leeds, 1996, pp. 57 and 502). These commodes not only relate to one illustrated on the Langlois trade-card of the 1750s, but can also be demonstrated to have evolved from the 'inlaid commode table' supplied in 1760 to John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford (d.1771), who exchanged his London house with that of the French ambassador while serving as King George III's ambassador at the Court of Louis XV. The Bedford commode is likewise inlaid with a pastoral trophy; while its façade recalls Ovid's Metamorphoses concerning the history of the fertility goddess Flora, and is strewn with festive flowers and centred by a golden mask of her companion, the west wind Zephyr. His mask likewise featured on a design, attributed to Langlois, for a commode with similar acanthus-wrapped legs as appear on this group of bombé-fronted commodes.
The Dundas commodes are likely to have been commissioned at the same time as a commode that Langlois supplied in 1764 under the direction of the architect Robert Adam (d.1792) for the 6th Earl of Coventry at Croome Court, Worcestershire.
In the middle of the eighteenth-century, the highly decorative French commode, or 'commode-table' as it was called, was used to furnish the window-piers of fashionable drawing rooms as well as those of the bedroom apartments. Langlois, trading at the 'Sign of a commode table' was the foremost manufacturer of such flower-encrusted furniture. In particular, he imitated the fashion of kingwood flower-sprays, veneered in the bois de bout manner with dark cross-grain figuring on a rayed tulipwood ground. One such piece was the secretaire-bookcase supplied for Louis XV at the Trianon by the marchand mercier Lazare Duvaux. This is attributed to the ébéniste Bernard Vanrisamburgh (after 1696-c.1766), who adopted the furniture stamp B.V.R.B. and was particularly celebrated for this form of ormolu-mounted and richly inlaid furniture (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, London, 1989, p.189, fig. 190).
Another Parisian ébéniste working in the fashion adopted by Langlois was Jacques-Philippe Carel (elected maître in 1723), whose work was sometimes acquired through the marchand mercier Callery of the rue de la Monnaie. For instance, an elegantly serpentined form of lady's desk or secretaire en pente, manufactured by Langlois, follows the pattern of one of Carel's desks supplied in 1751 for the Versailles apartments of Mesdames Sophie et Louise de France by François Antoine Gaudreaus (d.1753) (P. Thornton and W. Rieder, Pierre Langlois, Ebéniste, pt.V, May, 1972, fig.2 and A. Pradère, op.cit., p.143, fig.113). Another bureau, signed by Carel, relates to one that was formerly in the collection of the Duke of Sussex, and is inlaid with a musical trophy that virtually repeats those of the Dundas commodes (Thornton, op. cit., Connoisseur, pt.IV, April, 1972, p.257, figs.1 and 2).