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Lot Essay
The 'Peper Harow' Commodes
The elliptic marble-topped commodes, with central key-escutcheons incorporated in tablet-framed medallions of fine-figured mahogany and fillets of Etrusan-black ribbon-inlay, are conceived in the elegant George III 'antique' fashion associated with R. and J. Adam's Works in Architecture, 1774, and popularised by A. Hepplewhite & Co's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788 (pl. 78). Hepplewhite explained, such furniture was 'adapted for a drawing-room: within are shelves which answer the use of a closet or cupboard. It may have one principal door in the front, or one at each end … and being used in principal rooms, require considerable elegance, the panels may be of satin wood, plain, or inlaid...'
Together with another Peper Harow medallion-inlaid commode, they may have been amongst the furniture commissioned in the 1770s by George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton (d. 1836) (the other commode is illustrated in situ in C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Mid-Georgian 1760-1800, London, 1956, p. 111). All three pieces may have been supplied by John Mayhew and William Ince, the Golden Square cabinet-makers and celebrated authors of The Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762. This firm is also credited with the manufacture of the Peper Harow's hall chairs (A pair was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 15 April 2005, lot 173).
The elliptic marble-topped commodes, with central key-escutcheons incorporated in tablet-framed medallions of fine-figured mahogany and fillets of Etrusan-black ribbon-inlay, are conceived in the elegant George III 'antique' fashion associated with R. and J. Adam's Works in Architecture, 1774, and popularised by A. Hepplewhite & Co's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788 (pl. 78). Hepplewhite explained, such furniture was 'adapted for a drawing-room: within are shelves which answer the use of a closet or cupboard. It may have one principal door in the front, or one at each end … and being used in principal rooms, require considerable elegance, the panels may be of satin wood, plain, or inlaid...'
Together with another Peper Harow medallion-inlaid commode, they may have been amongst the furniture commissioned in the 1770s by George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton (d. 1836) (the other commode is illustrated in situ in C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Mid-Georgian 1760-1800, London, 1956, p. 111). All three pieces may have been supplied by John Mayhew and William Ince, the Golden Square cabinet-makers and celebrated authors of The Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762. This firm is also credited with the manufacture of the Peper Harow's hall chairs (A pair was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 15 April 2005, lot 173).