.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Wakefield firm of Edward Wright and Richard Elwick were strongly influenced by Thomas Chippendale's work The Gentleman & Cabinet-Makers Director, to which both men subscribed, with most of the surviving furniture ascribed to the firm apparently deriving from Chippendale's designs. Wright and Elwick are first recorded in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1748, although Wright is recorded (on the firm's trade card) as having worked in London at 'ye Greatest Tapestry Manufactory in England for Upwards of Twenty Years' beforehand (C. Gilbert, 'Wright and Elwick of Wakefield', Furniture History, 1976, pp. 34-50).
There are comparisons to be drawn between various attributes of the present commode and several of Chippendale's designs. Chippendale illustrates a 'French Commode Table' employing a related T-shaped drawer configuration with flanking cupboards in the 3rd edition of the Director (1762, pl. LXIX), whilst the cusped quatrefoil double-panel to the canted angle is almost identical to one illustrated in Chippendale's design for the leg of a writing-table in the same edition (pl. LXXIV) and the canted panel to the doors of this commode relate to those illustrated by Chippendale in his design for a 'Library Bookcase' in first edition of the Director (1753, pl. LXIX).
Wright and Elwick were extensively, but by no means exclusively, patronised by the Yorkshire nobility and often engaged alongside the acclaimed Palladian architect John Carr of York (1723-1807); indeed Carr is recorded as discussing the firm with his patron John Spencer of Cannon Hall near Barnsley shortly before they were employed there. They also counted the Marquess of Rockingham amongst their principal patrons; supplying furnishings for Wentworth Woodhouse near Sheffield. One of the strongest stylistic links connecting this commode to the firm's work is the cusped quatrefoil panel a device common to many of the Wentworth pieces (see The Wentworth sale, Christie's, London, 8 July 1998 lots 35, 62 and 69).
Wright and Elwick are known to have imported their own timber which would account for their ability to acquire such fine veneered examples, as seen across their known body of work and on the present commode.
There are comparisons to be drawn between various attributes of the present commode and several of Chippendale's designs. Chippendale illustrates a 'French Commode Table' employing a related T-shaped drawer configuration with flanking cupboards in the 3rd edition of the Director (1762, pl. LXIX), whilst the cusped quatrefoil double-panel to the canted angle is almost identical to one illustrated in Chippendale's design for the leg of a writing-table in the same edition (pl. LXXIV) and the canted panel to the doors of this commode relate to those illustrated by Chippendale in his design for a 'Library Bookcase' in first edition of the Director (1753, pl. LXIX).
Wright and Elwick were extensively, but by no means exclusively, patronised by the Yorkshire nobility and often engaged alongside the acclaimed Palladian architect John Carr of York (1723-1807); indeed Carr is recorded as discussing the firm with his patron John Spencer of Cannon Hall near Barnsley shortly before they were employed there. They also counted the Marquess of Rockingham amongst their principal patrons; supplying furnishings for Wentworth Woodhouse near Sheffield. One of the strongest stylistic links connecting this commode to the firm's work is the cusped quatrefoil panel a device common to many of the Wentworth pieces (see The Wentworth sale, Christie's, London, 8 July 1998 lots 35, 62 and 69).
Wright and Elwick are known to have imported their own timber which would account for their ability to acquire such fine veneered examples, as seen across their known body of work and on the present commode.