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Lot Essay
This magnificent 'pier-commode-table' is designed in the George III French/antique manner suited to bedroom apartments designed by the Rome-trained architect Robert Adam (d. 1792) and decorated in the fashionable 1770s à la Français style. 'Bob the Roman' Adam's publication of his Works in Architecture, 1773-1779 helped popularise the court architect's Roman system of harmonising furniture with walls and ceilings through the introduction of colourful tablets and medallions. Here the commode's polychromed façade displays a medallion inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods and evoking lyric poetry concerning sacrifices at Love's altar in antiquity. The commode's angles are fitted with French-fashioned encoignures concealing a shelf-fitted compartment whose tablets, with palm-flowered spandrels, display laurelled and scrolled rinceaux of Roman acanthus accompanying palm-flowered sacred urns - again recalling the Etruscan fashion for vase-decorated rooms promoted by Adam's Works in Architecture.
The concept of a demi-lune commode form enriched with mythological medallions within arabesque borders is most closely associated with the series of commodes conceived by Robert Adam and executed by the Golden Square cabinet-makers Mayhew and Ince. These do, however, usually feature polychrome-painted medallions on metal, such as the copper paintings of the Birmingham metalworker Matthew Boulton, for whom the artist Angelica Kauffman (d. 1810) provided 'little pictures' in the late 1770s (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, p. 269). Their elegant 'arabesque' or 'antique' ornaments can also be compared to those issued by Placido Columbani, an Italian artist employed by Adam and the author of a New Book of Ornaments, containing a variety of elegant designs for modern panels, commonly executed in stucco, wood or painting, and used in decorating Principal Rooms, 1775.
The use of pewter ornament to enrich this commode is a particularly unusual and idiosyncratic feature - but is characteristic of English chimneypieces of the 1780s. Although a North Italian origin for this commode has been suggested in the past, the use of pewter at this date, combined with both its vocabulary of ornament, construction and use of red wash etc. firmly places this commode in the vanguard of Adam's influence in England in the 1780s. Moreoever, interestingly Adam often designed pier-commodes and pier-tables to harmonise with a room's chimneypiece - such as the Bartoli and Richter scagliola tops and matching chimneypiece supplied in the early 1780s to the Carlton House palace of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, now incorporated in St. James's Palace. It would therefore be entirely logical for a commode to be enriched with pewter in England in the 1780s when conceived en suite with a chimneypiece.
Further works - other than chimneypieces - executed with pewter mounts include a mirror in an American Private Collection and a pair of glazed blue-painted cabinets attributed to Mayhew and Ince from the collection of Westmore and Esther Willcox, New York City (exhibited by Carlton Hobbs at Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, 2009).
THE ASSOCIATION WITH MAYHEW AND INCE
This commode is perhaps closest on stylistic grounds to the leading London cabinet-makers, William Ince and John Mayhew. In 1775 the partners supplied a magnificent ormolu-mounted satinwood, harewood and marquetry commode, designed in 1774 by Robert Adam, for the Countess of Derby's dressing room at Derby House in London. They described the commode as being executed in 'curious [richly figured] Woods very Finely inlaid with Etruscan Ornaments enriched with rich /wrought brass Mouldings Antique Heads and Drapery Ovals ...'. This commode, designed by Adam in the new Etruscan style, was among the very first bow-fronted examples to be executed (H. Roberts, 'The Derby House Commode', The Burlington Magazine, May 1985, pp. 275-283) - and indeed much of the ornament conceived en suite by Adam for 'The Countess of Derby's Dressing Room', particularly the panelled doors, closely echoes that on this commode.
A DUAL PURPOSE: COMMODE/JARDINIERE
This unusual metamorphic commode jardinière was no doubt conceived for the window pier of a bedroom apartment - its dual-purpose for the Summer and Winter months perhaps being mirrored by the changing seasonal covers of the seat-furniture. The idea for this rare form of dual-purpose furniture probably emanated from France - and Parisian marchand-merciers such as Dominique Daguerre. The latter was probably responsible for supplying such dual-purpose tables to comte Francois Martial de Choiseul Beaupré, Menin du Dauphin and Lieutenant Général des armes du Roi, which were described in the inventory of 1792 in the salon of his hôtel on the quai Malaquai:
'deux consoles de bois d'acajou double fond garnie de cuivre, anneaux et perles de cuivre doré surmonté de leur tablettes de marbre garnies en dedans de caisse de plomb pour recevoir des caisses 240'.
Known as 'table à fleurs' in the 18th Century, Adam Weisweiler and his contemporaries Jean-Henri Riesener and Ferdinand Bury are known to have made such metamorphic tables.
RORY CAMERON, BILLY BALDWIN AND THE VILLA FIORENTINA
This commode previously formed part of the collections of the legendary Villa Fiorentina, arguably one of the 20th Century's most influential decorative schemes. Previously owned by Enid, Lady Kenmare and her son Roderick 'Rory' Cameron, when it first became a central focus for the beau-monde of the Riviera, the Villa was subsequently sold to Mr and Mrs Harding Lawrence, who turned to Billy Baldwin to transform its interiors into one of the great examples of classical modernism. As Baldwin himself remarked, 'Not one thing did they wish to see, I was to buy everything' - and this is almost certainly the case with this commode.
The concept of a demi-lune commode form enriched with mythological medallions within arabesque borders is most closely associated with the series of commodes conceived by Robert Adam and executed by the Golden Square cabinet-makers Mayhew and Ince. These do, however, usually feature polychrome-painted medallions on metal, such as the copper paintings of the Birmingham metalworker Matthew Boulton, for whom the artist Angelica Kauffman (d. 1810) provided 'little pictures' in the late 1770s (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, p. 269). Their elegant 'arabesque' or 'antique' ornaments can also be compared to those issued by Placido Columbani, an Italian artist employed by Adam and the author of a New Book of Ornaments, containing a variety of elegant designs for modern panels, commonly executed in stucco, wood or painting, and used in decorating Principal Rooms, 1775.
The use of pewter ornament to enrich this commode is a particularly unusual and idiosyncratic feature - but is characteristic of English chimneypieces of the 1780s. Although a North Italian origin for this commode has been suggested in the past, the use of pewter at this date, combined with both its vocabulary of ornament, construction and use of red wash etc. firmly places this commode in the vanguard of Adam's influence in England in the 1780s. Moreoever, interestingly Adam often designed pier-commodes and pier-tables to harmonise with a room's chimneypiece - such as the Bartoli and Richter scagliola tops and matching chimneypiece supplied in the early 1780s to the Carlton House palace of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, now incorporated in St. James's Palace. It would therefore be entirely logical for a commode to be enriched with pewter in England in the 1780s when conceived en suite with a chimneypiece.
Further works - other than chimneypieces - executed with pewter mounts include a mirror in an American Private Collection and a pair of glazed blue-painted cabinets attributed to Mayhew and Ince from the collection of Westmore and Esther Willcox, New York City (exhibited by Carlton Hobbs at Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, 2009).
THE ASSOCIATION WITH MAYHEW AND INCE
This commode is perhaps closest on stylistic grounds to the leading London cabinet-makers, William Ince and John Mayhew. In 1775 the partners supplied a magnificent ormolu-mounted satinwood, harewood and marquetry commode, designed in 1774 by Robert Adam, for the Countess of Derby's dressing room at Derby House in London. They described the commode as being executed in 'curious [richly figured] Woods very Finely inlaid with Etruscan Ornaments enriched with rich /wrought brass Mouldings Antique Heads and Drapery Ovals ...'. This commode, designed by Adam in the new Etruscan style, was among the very first bow-fronted examples to be executed (H. Roberts, 'The Derby House Commode', The Burlington Magazine, May 1985, pp. 275-283) - and indeed much of the ornament conceived en suite by Adam for 'The Countess of Derby's Dressing Room', particularly the panelled doors, closely echoes that on this commode.
A DUAL PURPOSE: COMMODE/JARDINIERE
This unusual metamorphic commode jardinière was no doubt conceived for the window pier of a bedroom apartment - its dual-purpose for the Summer and Winter months perhaps being mirrored by the changing seasonal covers of the seat-furniture. The idea for this rare form of dual-purpose furniture probably emanated from France - and Parisian marchand-merciers such as Dominique Daguerre. The latter was probably responsible for supplying such dual-purpose tables to comte Francois Martial de Choiseul Beaupré, Menin du Dauphin and Lieutenant Général des armes du Roi, which were described in the inventory of 1792 in the salon of his hôtel on the quai Malaquai:
'deux consoles de bois d'acajou double fond garnie de cuivre, anneaux et perles de cuivre doré surmonté de leur tablettes de marbre garnies en dedans de caisse de plomb pour recevoir des caisses 240'.
Known as 'table à fleurs' in the 18th Century, Adam Weisweiler and his contemporaries Jean-Henri Riesener and Ferdinand Bury are known to have made such metamorphic tables.
RORY CAMERON, BILLY BALDWIN AND THE VILLA FIORENTINA
This commode previously formed part of the collections of the legendary Villa Fiorentina, arguably one of the 20th Century's most influential decorative schemes. Previously owned by Enid, Lady Kenmare and her son Roderick 'Rory' Cameron, when it first became a central focus for the beau-monde of the Riviera, the Villa was subsequently sold to Mr and Mrs Harding Lawrence, who turned to Billy Baldwin to transform its interiors into one of the great examples of classical modernism. As Baldwin himself remarked, 'Not one thing did they wish to see, I was to buy everything' - and this is almost certainly the case with this commode.