AFTER A DESIGN BY THOMAS SHERATON, CIRCA 1793

The slightly bowfront profile of this dressing-commode is inspired by a pattern for a 'Dressing Chest of Drawers' published in plate 15 in The Appendix to T. Sheraton's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793. The pattern illustrates the bowfronted chest with a shallow fitted top drawer, as in the present example. It was described as 'a new plan, particularly as the common slider for merely writing on is turned into a shallow drawer, which contains a little writing flap which rises behind a horse, and places for ink sand and pens, and also dressing boxes ...'
A pair of satinwood bowfront commodes after a Gillows design of 1789 and also with three drawers each below a slide was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 22 November 2006, lot 151.