The cabinet's 'commode' base has tablet-framed medallions in the 'Roman' fashion introduced in the 1770s, while its elegantly serpentined apron terminating in Grecian-scrolled feet, reflects the George III 'antique' fashion introduced around 1780 and featured later in Messrs A. Hepplewhite and Co.'s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788 (pl. 76). The handles of its interior drawers consist of sunflowered and octagon-compartment plates that evoke Apollo's Palmyran temple, and feature in 'Stamp'd Commode' patterns in a contemporary metal-worker's pattern-book (N. Goodison, 'The Victoria & Albert Museum's Collection of Metal-Work Pattern Books', Furniture History, 1975, fig. 34).