Lot Essay
There is a cabinet-on-stand inlaid with similar flowersprays, which has a base of the same profile as this bonheur-du-jour, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (no.W.2-1962; see: M. Tomlin, Catalogue of the Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, no. U/12).
The distinctive arrow entwined with foliage inlaid on the flap appears on a marquetry pembroke table at Newby Hall, Yorkshire. It is part of a coherent group almost certainly supplied by John Cobb in the 1760's that includes a serpentine commode of the same model as the one he supplied to James West at Alscot Park in 1766.
The delicate floral sprays (especially roses) inlaid on a lustrous amber-coloured ground are a recurrent motif in what has been tentatively identified as the style of marquetry used by John Cobb. The best-known example of this style is the commode supplied but not made by Chippendale for Lady Winn's Dressing Room at Nostell Priory (see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, figs. 219 and 220).
The distinctive arrow entwined with foliage inlaid on the flap appears on a marquetry pembroke table at Newby Hall, Yorkshire. It is part of a coherent group almost certainly supplied by John Cobb in the 1760's that includes a serpentine commode of the same model as the one he supplied to James West at Alscot Park in 1766.
The delicate floral sprays (especially roses) inlaid on a lustrous amber-coloured ground are a recurrent motif in what has been tentatively identified as the style of marquetry used by John Cobb. The best-known example of this style is the commode supplied but not made by Chippendale for Lady Winn's Dressing Room at Nostell Priory (see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, figs. 219 and 220).