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Lot Essay
THE DESIGN
The elegant antique sarcophagus-shaped commode, with ormolu bas-relief enrichments, is conceived in the French 'picturesque' fashion and its reed-banded top and lambrequined apron are serpentined in Cupid-bows with canted angles. Its parquetry inlay of tablets and medallions reflects the 'Roman' fashion of the 1760s promoted by George III's court architect Robert Adam (d. 1792). The beribboned medallion on the top of golden marble-figured burr-elm is inlaid in a ray-lozenged compartment, while those at the sides are parquetried à quâtre façes and ray outwards from medallions, which incorporate handle-bails issuing from 'Apollo' laurel-wreathed escutcheons. Reeds, sacred to the Arcadian deity Pan, wreath the drawers, and the flowered and antique-fluted handle-bails issue from flowered cartouches of Roman acanthus that embellish the drawers' tablets. The canted angle pilasters are festooned in laurels issuing from flowered cartouches and terminate in acanthus-whorled trusses. The asymmetrical handle plates derive from a combination of two patterns issued as nos. 311 and 312 of a Birmingham metalworker's pattern-book (T.R. Crom, An Eighteenth Century English Brass Hardware Catalogue, Florida, 1994, p. 44). The same handles appear on mahogany commodes supplied in the 1760s for Burghley, Lincolnshire (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 51, fig. 36) and on another commode now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (ibid, p. 53, fig. 40).
THE ESCUTCHEONS AND THE ATTRIBUTION TO JOHN COBB
The laurel escutcheons, evoking poetic triumph, are also displayed on the drawers' central lozenged tablets, and the commode carcase is likewise parquetried in a lozenged compartment evoking Rome's Temple of Venus. The same escutcheons appear on a related reed-enriched commode, described as an 'extra fine wood Commode chest of drawers' with 'large handsome wrought furniture', when it was supplied in 1766 to Alscot Park, Warwickshire by George III's court cabinet-maker, John Cobb of St. Martin's Lane (d. 1778 ) (ibid., p. 51, fig. 35). The same escutcheons also appear on a pair of lacquer-veneered commodes supplied to the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1771) for St. Giles's House, Dorset, attributed to John Cobb (P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev.ed., 1954, vol., p. 114, fig. 12; sold by The Earl of Shaftesbury, Christie's, London, 11 November 1999, lot 100). It is on the basis of these escutcheons that the present commode can be attributed to Cobb.
Another commode, with parquetried tablets and medallions and bearing the same flowered handles, formed part of the Savile collection at Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire (sold from Rufford Abbey, Christie's house sale, 11 October 1938, lot 104).
The elegant antique sarcophagus-shaped commode, with ormolu bas-relief enrichments, is conceived in the French 'picturesque' fashion and its reed-banded top and lambrequined apron are serpentined in Cupid-bows with canted angles. Its parquetry inlay of tablets and medallions reflects the 'Roman' fashion of the 1760s promoted by George III's court architect Robert Adam (d. 1792). The beribboned medallion on the top of golden marble-figured burr-elm is inlaid in a ray-lozenged compartment, while those at the sides are parquetried à quâtre façes and ray outwards from medallions, which incorporate handle-bails issuing from 'Apollo' laurel-wreathed escutcheons. Reeds, sacred to the Arcadian deity Pan, wreath the drawers, and the flowered and antique-fluted handle-bails issue from flowered cartouches of Roman acanthus that embellish the drawers' tablets. The canted angle pilasters are festooned in laurels issuing from flowered cartouches and terminate in acanthus-whorled trusses. The asymmetrical handle plates derive from a combination of two patterns issued as nos. 311 and 312 of a Birmingham metalworker's pattern-book (T.R. Crom, An Eighteenth Century English Brass Hardware Catalogue, Florida, 1994, p. 44). The same handles appear on mahogany commodes supplied in the 1760s for Burghley, Lincolnshire (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 51, fig. 36) and on another commode now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (ibid, p. 53, fig. 40).
THE ESCUTCHEONS AND THE ATTRIBUTION TO JOHN COBB
The laurel escutcheons, evoking poetic triumph, are also displayed on the drawers' central lozenged tablets, and the commode carcase is likewise parquetried in a lozenged compartment evoking Rome's Temple of Venus. The same escutcheons appear on a related reed-enriched commode, described as an 'extra fine wood Commode chest of drawers' with 'large handsome wrought furniture', when it was supplied in 1766 to Alscot Park, Warwickshire by George III's court cabinet-maker, John Cobb of St. Martin's Lane (d. 1778 ) (ibid., p. 51, fig. 35). The same escutcheons also appear on a pair of lacquer-veneered commodes supplied to the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1771) for St. Giles's House, Dorset, attributed to John Cobb (P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev.ed., 1954, vol., p. 114, fig. 12; sold by The Earl of Shaftesbury, Christie's, London, 11 November 1999, lot 100). It is on the basis of these escutcheons that the present commode can be attributed to Cobb.
Another commode, with parquetried tablets and medallions and bearing the same flowered handles, formed part of the Savile collection at Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire (sold from Rufford Abbey, Christie's house sale, 11 October 1938, lot 104).