THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

Thomas Chippendale published a related pattern for a George II 'Commode Cloths Press', raised on moulded plinths with serpentined bracket feet in his The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754 (pl. 129). The present rectangular press displays fine flame-figured mahogany panels, which are sunk in French-fashioned hollow-cornered tablets in a manner popularised by the 1762 third edition of The Director. It is likely that this press, and the following lot, were supplied around 1760-65. In 1763 Sir Lawrence Dundas commissioned a related press, with similar stand and pateraed handles, to be executed for Aske Hall, Yorkshire in Chippendale's 'plain Genteel Taste'. The latter, which incorportes an extra large drawer in the base, was invoiced in August that year as:- 'A large Mahog: Cloaths press in two parts with folding doors and sliding shelves cover'd with Marble paper and bays aprons £10.0.0.'. Its matching 'commode Cloths press' was invoiced at £12.12.-., the following April (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978 (vol. I, pp. 156,159 and vol. II, fig. 243). In 1774 Chipendale also supplied Paxton House, Scotland with a related press, whose hollowed corners were enriched with flowered paterae (ibid., vol. II, fig. 248).
In the 1795 inventory of Harewood House there are three mahogany presses and six mahogany wardrobes recorded, while only one is recorded in the 1795 inventory of Lord Harewood's London house in Portman Street.