Lot Essay
The serpentine commode is designed in the George II 'picturesque' manner and has its top richly carved with a flowered ribbon-guilloche. The acanthus-wrapped and canted supports are festooned with fruit issuing from hollowed cartouches. Foliage also wraps the scrolled bracket feet and apron with its central embossed cartouche. While elements of its truss suppports correspond to 'French Commode Table' patterns illustrated in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, pl. XLVIII, it relates most closely to a design dating from around 1761 and attributed to William Gomm
(d. 1794), cabinet-maker of Clerkenwell Close and a subscriber to the Director (see: L. Boynton, 'William Gomm', Burlington Magazine, June 1980, pp. 395-402, fig. 33). The latter design relates to a pair of commodes from Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, which formed part of the furnishings supplied by Gomm around 1763. The commodes were sold from Stoneleigh, in these Rooms, 3 May 1962, lots 53 and 54 (see: The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 350). A related commode from Elsham Hall, Lincolnshire was sold, Sotheby's New York, 29 October 1988, lot 387.
There is a closely related dressing-commode with the same carved convex bracket feet in the room now called 'Lord Morley's Room' at Saltram, Devonshire. That commode has been associated with Thomas Chippendale. Chippendale supplied the Saloon seat-furniture at Saltram but the other furniture in the same bedroom as the dressing-commode includes a night-table of a very distinctive design that is extremely close to several Chippendale models including that supplied for the Yellow Chintz Bedroom at Harewood House, circa 1770 (see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 249, fig. 456)
(d. 1794), cabinet-maker of Clerkenwell Close and a subscriber to the Director (see: L. Boynton, 'William Gomm', Burlington Magazine, June 1980, pp. 395-402, fig. 33). The latter design relates to a pair of commodes from Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, which formed part of the furnishings supplied by Gomm around 1763. The commodes were sold from Stoneleigh, in these Rooms, 3 May 1962, lots 53 and 54 (see: The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 350). A related commode from Elsham Hall, Lincolnshire was sold, Sotheby's New York, 29 October 1988, lot 387.
There is a closely related dressing-commode with the same carved convex bracket feet in the room now called 'Lord Morley's Room' at Saltram, Devonshire. That commode has been associated with Thomas Chippendale. Chippendale supplied the Saloon seat-furniture at Saltram but the other furniture in the same bedroom as the dressing-commode includes a night-table of a very distinctive design that is extremely close to several Chippendale models including that supplied for the Yellow Chintz Bedroom at Harewood House, circa 1770 (see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 249, fig. 456)