SICILY, PROBABLY MID-18TH CENTURY, LARGELY RE-DECORATED WITH TRACES OF AN EARLIER SCHEME

In their form and style of decoration, these commodes are typical of Sicilian mid-18th century production. Marble tops, serpentine cases, cabriole legs and hoof feet appear in many commodes along with the colorful and distinctive painting of three lush floral sprays within raised cartouches against a latticework ground. Several closely related commodes, including a single commode, also with a marble top, red ground, and identical painting along with slightly more exaggerated hoof feet, are illustrated in M. Giarrizzo and A. Rotolo, Il Mobile Siciliano, Palermo, 2004. pp. 88 and 91.

As indicated on the French & Co. records, this pair of commodes originally formed part of a group of four, all of which French & Co. eventually purchased from A. Piano & Sons. The present, larger, commodes are described as pair 'A'. Pair 'B' were smaller and measured 32½ in high, 22½ in. wide and 11½ in. deep. According to the French & Co. archives, the smaller pair were apparently '...of almost identical design...' to a painted commode illustrated in W. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture: From the Fourteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 1967, p. 140, fig. 165.