拍品專文
This commode forms part of a group which share very restrained serpentine shape, superbly chosen and matched timbers and more or less carved canted angles. The canted scrolled and acanthus-headed angles are inspired by the 'French Commode Tables' illustrated in Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762, particularly plate LXIX.
A four-drawer commode from the group with identical handles to the present lot is illustrated in R. W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, p.39, fig.28. Another, with five drawers and very similar bead-filled fluted angles is illustrated in
R. W. Symonds, Furniture Making in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England London, 1955, pp.110-111, figs. 164 and 165.
Three commodes from the group that were supplied in the mid-1760's to the 5th Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, are now attributed to the Clerkenwell Close cabinet-maker, William Gomm & Son. Designs exist in Gomm's sketchbook (nowin the Downs MSS in the Winterthur Library, Delaware, U.S.A) and there is confirmatory account evidence. The commodes were sold from Stoneleigh, in these Rooms, 3 May 1962, lots 53 and 54. The larger and grander was resold 5 July 1990, lot 149. Gomm's drawing in fact incorporates several ideas in addition to those that make up the Stoneleigh commodes and it is interesting that the final product should be the most massive and stately of the alternatives. The end result fits into a larger group, by several cabinet-makers.
A four-drawer commode from the group with identical handles to the present lot is illustrated in R. W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, p.39, fig.28. Another, with five drawers and very similar bead-filled fluted angles is illustrated in
R. W. Symonds, Furniture Making in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England London, 1955, pp.110-111, figs. 164 and 165.
Three commodes from the group that were supplied in the mid-1760's to the 5th Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, are now attributed to the Clerkenwell Close cabinet-maker, William Gomm & Son. Designs exist in Gomm's sketchbook (nowin the Downs MSS in the Winterthur Library, Delaware, U.S.A) and there is confirmatory account evidence. The commodes were sold from Stoneleigh, in these Rooms, 3 May 1962, lots 53 and 54. The larger and grander was resold 5 July 1990, lot 149. Gomm's drawing in fact incorporates several ideas in addition to those that make up the Stoneleigh commodes and it is interesting that the final product should be the most massive and stately of the alternatives. The end result fits into a larger group, by several cabinet-makers.