The commode is elegantly serpentined, marquetried and enriched with foliate ormolu mounts in the George III French 'picturesque' manner. The ribbon-banded top, like the façades, is embellished with flowered-lozenge trellis after the Roman fashion, illustrated by a 'Mosaic Fret' pattern in John Crunden's The Joyner and Cabinet-Maker's Darling, 1765, pl. 3; and as a pattern for 'Jappaners China painters etc.' in A. Willson's The Antique and Modern Embellisher, 1766 (pl. 24). This popular 'mosaic' pattern features on a number of pier-tables and commodes, including a semi-circular commode sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 11 July 1986, lot 80. The same pattern handles feature on commodes dating from the mid-1760s and discussed in L. Wood, The Lady Lever Art Gallery: Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 169, figs. 156-157.

The present commode is reputed to have been commissioned by John Davenport (d. 1789) for The Hall, his villa at Clapham. It was inherited by his daughter Elizabeth Susanna Graham (d. 1844), and may have been amongst the four commodes listed in an inventory at her death.