.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This French fashion of 'pier commode table', with flowered and ormolu-enriched frame, was popularised in mid-18th century London by the ébéniste Pierre Langlois (d. 1767), and featured on his Tottenham Court Road trade-sheet. The top's foliated ribbon border frame's tablet, matched by those of the frame, and comprising a flowered 'mosaic fret', such as appeared in John Crunden's pattern-book The Joyner and Cabinet-Maker's Darling, 1765 and intended to evoke the ornament of Rome's Temple of Venus. The trussed pilasters, echo the form of its cupid-bowed top and are festooned in ormolu laurels from French-patterned cartouches. The latter, like the handles, have been documented on commodes of the 1760s and early 1770s attributed to the Marlborough cabinet-maker Henry Hill (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, pp. 71 and 169).
A related commode, but with rectilinear angles, reputed to have been made for J. Davenport (d. 1789) was sold by The Viscount Gage, Firle Place, Sussex, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 116 (£49,350). Another with similar inlay and handles featured on a commode of more 'bombé' form, that was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 6 February 1998, lot 92 (£20,700).
A related commode, but with rectilinear angles, reputed to have been made for J. Davenport (d. 1789) was sold by The Viscount Gage, Firle Place, Sussex, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 116 (£49,350). Another with similar inlay and handles featured on a commode of more 'bombé' form, that was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 6 February 1998, lot 92 (£20,700).