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Lot Essay
The commode-table, intended to stand beneath the window-pier mirror of a George III reception Dressing Room, is elliptically curved in demi-medallion form in the George III Roman fashion popularised by the Countess of Derby's Dressing Room commode illustrated in the Rome-trained court architect Robert Adam's, Works in Architecture, 1774.
Its elegant architectural style using Roman tablets and medallions was also promoted by the architect James Wyatt (d. 1813); and featured in Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co.'s, Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788. Gillow of London and Lancaster designated this form of elliptical commode a circular commode in their 1788 Estimate Sketch Book, when supplying an elegant satinwood commode wreathed in purple ribbons for Workington Hall, Cumbria (S. E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 2 vols., Woodbridge, 2008, pls. 538 and 539). With its herm-tapered pilasters and frieze tablets embellished with silvery drawer-handles shaped as medallioned libation-paterae and festooned with laurels, it also relates to a dressing-room pembroke-table that is similar to a contemporary Workington table supplied by Gillow (see Sotheby's London, 19 November 1993, lot 100; and L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 60).
Its elegant architectural style using Roman tablets and medallions was also promoted by the architect James Wyatt (d. 1813); and featured in Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co.'s, Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788. Gillow of London and Lancaster designated this form of elliptical commode a circular commode in their 1788 Estimate Sketch Book, when supplying an elegant satinwood commode wreathed in purple ribbons for Workington Hall, Cumbria (S. E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 2 vols., Woodbridge, 2008, pls. 538 and 539). With its herm-tapered pilasters and frieze tablets embellished with silvery drawer-handles shaped as medallioned libation-paterae and festooned with laurels, it also relates to a dressing-room pembroke-table that is similar to a contemporary Workington table supplied by Gillow (see Sotheby's London, 19 November 1993, lot 100; and L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 60).