The serpentine-fronted chest with acanthus-enriched truss angles epitomises the moment in mid-18th century English furniture design in which the fashionable French or 'modern' style is combined with the picturesque, Gothic and the Antique. The Jonesian truss angles which derive from Isaac Ware's Some Designs of Mr William Kent and Mr Inigo Jones, 1731 are elaborately carved with picturesque acanthus while the bracket feet are carved with shallow Gothic quatrefoils. The shapely outline of the front also reflects the Hogarthian 'serpentine line' as promoted in his Analysis of Beauty, 1753. A design related to this commode featured in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-makers Director, 1754, pl. LXVI and described there as a 'French Commode Table'.

A pair of almost identical commodes of this pattern but with a brushing-slide was sold anonymously, Sotheby's New York, 19 October 2001, lot 217 ($55,375).