THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

The pier-commode-table, elegantly serpentined and hollowed at the corners, displays Etruscan-black fillets framing medallions of fine figured mahogany, while their reed-banded tablets are enriched with pearled libation-paterae. This fashion introduced in the mid-1770s, as seen in a Chippendale secretaire-cabinet provided for Paxton House, Berwickshire, Scotland, was later popularised by Messrs A. Hepplewhite and Co.'s, Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, fig. 91). Its restrained architecture corresponds to that of contemporary dining-room furnishings executed by the London and Lancaster cabinet-making firm of Gillows, who had executed a related 'plate case' in 1767 (L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 82).