Lot Essay
The commode with enclosed book-shelf, is surmounted by a bookshelf and relates to a 'chiffonier', described as being a useful article 'in almost every apartment of a house' in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808 (pl. 115). The present commode designed in the Grecian fashion introduced by George Bullock, has its plinth-support embellished by libation-paterae framing an inverted 'Apollonian' palm-flowered acroteria.
Both the form of the shaped plinth, centred by a demi-lune, a recurring leitmotif in Bullock's work, and the bold palmette decoration are familiar from the Wilkinson tracings and countless other examples of Bullock's work including lot 10 in this sale, the collector's cabinet.
Both the form of the shaped plinth, centred by a demi-lune, a recurring leitmotif in Bullock's work, and the bold palmette decoration are familiar from the Wilkinson tracings and countless other examples of Bullock's work including lot 10 in this sale, the collector's cabinet.