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Lot Essay
The overall design, choice of mounts and construction place this commode firmly within the group of commodes identified as being by the emigré French cabinet-maker in London, Pierre Langlois (fl. 1759-81). His work was identified and discussed in a pioneering series of five articles by P. Thornton and W. Rieder in 1971-2.
There are in fact very few pieces of furniture that have actual documentary evidence to link them to Langlois. Among the known payments to Langlois are some in the early 1760s, by the 7th Lord Digby of Sherborne Castle, Dorset. Among the furniture attributed to Langlois still at Sherborne Castle is a pair of two drawer serpentine commodes that share all the mounts with this commode (P. Thornton and W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois, Ebéniste', Connoisseur, April 1972, no. 17). A further Langlois characteristic of this commode is the black wash that is painted over the underside and back.
There are in fact very few pieces of furniture that have actual documentary evidence to link them to Langlois. Among the known payments to Langlois are some in the early 1760s, by the 7th Lord Digby of Sherborne Castle, Dorset. Among the furniture attributed to Langlois still at Sherborne Castle is a pair of two drawer serpentine commodes that share all the mounts with this commode (P. Thornton and W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois, Ebéniste', Connoisseur, April 1972, no. 17). A further Langlois characteristic of this commode is the black wash that is painted over the underside and back.