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Lot Essay
The extremely sparing decoration on these commodes is largely of very distinctive types, allowing the commodes to be placed within a specific sub-group of the commodes attributed to the cabinet-making partnership of John Mayhew and William Ince.
The most prominent element of the design is the Mannerist central satyr heads with chained collars, recorded by Lucy Wood (op. cit., p. 232) on a wine-cooler at Stourhead (R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, rev.ed., 1954, vol. III, p. 373, fig. 6) and a commode sold from Lever's collection in New York in 1926 and subsequently resold at Sotheby's London, 1 May 1987, lot 89. Other elements of the marquetry of the latter commode support an attribution to Mayhew and Ince.
Almost as distinctive as the collared satyr is the plaited border around the paterae on the top cross-banding. This motif appears in ormolu on Lady Lever, no. 27 (Wood, op. cit., p. 226 et seqq.) but crucially it appears in inlaid wood, apparently identical to the present lot, on a pair of side tables at Badminton (ibid., p. 230, fig. 217) which is associated with large payments made to Mayhew and Ince by the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort between 1778 and 1798. An anonymous commode with the same mask is illustrated in F.L. Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, p. 203, pl. 169, fig. 341.)
The most prominent element of the design is the Mannerist central satyr heads with chained collars, recorded by Lucy Wood (op. cit., p. 232) on a wine-cooler at Stourhead (R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, rev.ed., 1954, vol. III, p. 373, fig. 6) and a commode sold from Lever's collection in New York in 1926 and subsequently resold at Sotheby's London, 1 May 1987, lot 89. Other elements of the marquetry of the latter commode support an attribution to Mayhew and Ince.
Almost as distinctive as the collared satyr is the plaited border around the paterae on the top cross-banding. This motif appears in ormolu on Lady Lever, no. 27 (Wood, op. cit., p. 226 et seqq.) but crucially it appears in inlaid wood, apparently identical to the present lot, on a pair of side tables at Badminton (ibid., p. 230, fig. 217) which is associated with large payments made to Mayhew and Ince by the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort between 1778 and 1798. An anonymous commode with the same mask is illustrated in F.L. Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, p. 203, pl. 169, fig. 341.)