拍品專文
This elliptic commode's herm-tapered and stump-footed pilasters are inlaid with trompe-l'oeil flutes, and with its corner cupboards inlaid with beribboned medallions it reflects the 1780's 'Roman' fashion popularised by Messrs. A. Hepplewhite and Co.'s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788. This type of elliptic commode pattern, with or without drawers and with oval panels to the side doors that could either be plain, marquetry or painted, features amongst designs in Gillows' Estimate Sketch Books for 1788, such as that supplied for J. C. Curwen of Workington Hall (I. Hall, 'Models with a choice of leg the Gillows Furniture Designs - II', Country Life, 15 June 1978, fig.7). Its French-fashioned 'tambour' slide, however, were also popular in contemporary Dutch buffet-fitted ('klapbuffet') commodes.