Lot Essay
This magnificent marquetry commode, with paired ormolu-enriched pilasters, canted 'hollow' sides and 'truss' feet wrapped with Roman acanthus foliage, was designed by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1778), cabinet-maker of St. Martin's Lane, to correspond with the 'antique' style introduced around 1770 by King George III's architects Sir William Chambers (d. 1796) and Robert Adam (d. 1792). It was conceived as a French 'pier-commode-table' and evolved from an engraving of a Louis XIV sarcophagus-commode issued by Jean Bérain (d. 1711). Its mosaic inlay top recalls the sun-god Apollo and derives from a Temple ceiling compartment illustrated in Robert Wood's Ruins of the Temple of Palmyra, 1753. Sunflowers and palm-leaves embellish the commode's ribbon-guilloche frieze, where they are framed by laurel-garlanded and husk-festooned trusses. Festive ram's heads with husk-wreaths embellish the imbricated and sunflowered paterae of the paired 'herm' pilasters, which provide a frame for the rayed panels of the front and sides. In addition love-trophy medallions, wreathed by pearls and palm-leaves, are set into the doors and display 'Etruscan' black rosewood vases of roses, the flower sacred to the nature-goddess Venus.
Such rich coloured 'paintings' in marquetry were popularised in London during the 1760s by specialist inlayers such as the Christopher Fuhrlohg (d. circa. 1787), the Paris-trained cabinet-maker of Tottenham Court Road, who was to be granted the appointment of 'Inlayer' to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV. Indeed Fuhrlohg may have provided the medallions displayed on a related commode by Chippendale of the early 1770s and known as the Renishaw commode (see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 292 and vol. II, fig. 236). The commode was designed around the time that the Adam brothers began to popularise their style through the publication of their Works in Architecture 1773-8. Another item designed by Chippendale at this period was a clock-case which appropriately displayed an Apollo mask. It also featured the combination of a sunflower medallion and rayed tablet within an Etruscan-black border, together with ram-headed pilasters and a flowered ribbon-guilloche (ibid., fig. 35). This richly decorated case, which is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, was commissioned by James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale (d. 1801), who, like the Earl of Bute, his father-in-law, was one of Robert Adam's leading patrons. It incorporated Alexander Cumming's remarkable barograph-clock, and was set up at Lowther Castle, Westmorland, in 1774
Such rich coloured 'paintings' in marquetry were popularised in London during the 1760s by specialist inlayers such as the Christopher Fuhrlohg (d. circa. 1787), the Paris-trained cabinet-maker of Tottenham Court Road, who was to be granted the appointment of 'Inlayer' to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV. Indeed Fuhrlohg may have provided the medallions displayed on a related commode by Chippendale of the early 1770s and known as the Renishaw commode (see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 292 and vol. II, fig. 236). The commode was designed around the time that the Adam brothers began to popularise their style through the publication of their Works in Architecture 1773-8. Another item designed by Chippendale at this period was a clock-case which appropriately displayed an Apollo mask. It also featured the combination of a sunflower medallion and rayed tablet within an Etruscan-black border, together with ram-headed pilasters and a flowered ribbon-guilloche (ibid., fig. 35). This richly decorated case, which is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, was commissioned by James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale (d. 1801), who, like the Earl of Bute, his father-in-law, was one of Robert Adam's leading patrons. It incorporated Alexander Cumming's remarkable barograph-clock, and was set up at Lowther Castle, Westmorland, in 1774