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Lot Essay
This extraordinary commode table forms part of an intriguing group of various inventive forms united by their architectural format and prominent term supports. Such terms were designed in the Romano-British fashion associated with the 17th-century court architect Inigo Jones (d.1652) and popularized by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington in the 18th century. The group has been traditionally ascribed to either Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) or John Boson (d. 1743), two cabinet-makers associated with the celebrated Royal architect designer William Kent (d. 1745), Burlington’s protégé. Similar cherub-headed pedestals also figure in the interiors of documented Kent houses including Raynham, Houghton and Chiswick House.
Notable examples in this group include:
- a pair of kneehole commode tables carved with owl terms, originally commissioned for Kent's patron Lord Burlington at Chiswick House and now in the collection of the Dukes of Devonshire at Chatsworth. In an exciting discovery during recent conservation, pencil signatures of ‘W Kent’, ‘B…’ (presumably for John Boson) and ‘Cornelius Martin/1735’ have been revealed (the latter a contemporary cabinet-maker who probably collaborated on their execution) (see M. Hirst, ‘Conservation discoveries: new insights into Lady Burlington’s ‘owl’ tables for her garden room at Chiswick’, Furniture History, 2014, pp. 205-215). Lady Burlington herself wrote to her husband in the same year: 'I hope signor [the Burlingtons' nickname for Kent] has remembered about my tables and glasses' underscoring his direct involvement in their commission (G. Beard, 'Some Thoughts on Benjamin Goodison', Partridge, Summer Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1988, p. 19). The pair of tables are listed in Boson’s receipt for ‘Carving work done for the Honourable Lady Burlington’ dated 11 September 1735. Significantly, ‘two Stands with Boy heads’ also appear on Boson’s receipt (Hirst, op. cit., fig. 3) and these compare closely to the figures on the present table (the stands are illustrated in S. Weber, ed., William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 512, fig. 18.63).
- a cherub-herm commode thought to have been supplied for the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1771) for St. Giles’s House, Dorset or his London home at 24 (now 27) Grosvenor Square, now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (W.74:1 to 4-1962). Shaftesbury commissioned architect Henry Flitcroft, successor to Kent as Master Mason and Deputy Surveyor of the Office of Works, to design the interiors of both houses. The Household Account Book at St. Giles’s shows significant payments to cabinet-maker William Hallett from 1745 and in 1743 a large payment ‘to Mr. Bosson [Boson] the carver £128’. The commode is illustrated in ‘Furniture at St. Giles’s, Dorset’, Country Life, 13 April 1935, p. 381, fig. 7, where the cherubs are visibly similar to the present table, and the feet are carved with a diaper pattern that corresponds to the term decoration here.
- a kneehole library table supplied to 2nd Duke of Montagu for Montagu House in circa 1737-41 and by descent to the Duke of Buccleuch at Boughton House, Northamptonshire. This piece is attributed to Goodison on the basis of surviving invoices showing him to have been the Duke's principal cabinet-maker, although Geoffrey Beard also unearthed payments in the Montagu accounts to John Boson in 1737 (Partridge, Summer Exhibition Catalogue, 1987). The table is illustrated in T. Murdoch ed., Boughton House, London, 1992 pp. 134, fig. 137. Others closely related form are discussed in Simon Sainsbury: The Creation of an English Arcadia, vol. I, Christie’s, London, 18 June 2008, lot 155 (£133,250).
- a pair of commodes with similar cherub-headed terms supplied to the 1st Duke of Richmond, probably for Richmond House, London and now at Goodwood House, Sussex (illustrated R. Edwards, 'Furniture at Goodwood', Country Life, 26 November 1932, p. 592, fig. 1).
- a pair of three-drawer commodes in the Royal Collection (purchased by Queen Mary) and originally commissioned by Sir Thomas Robinson for Rokeby Park, Yorkshire were recently exhibited at the Queen's Gallery (D. Shawe-Taylor, ed., The First Georgians, Art and Monarchy, London, 2014, exhibition catalogue, no. 117). These marble-topped commodes, and a kneehole table also from Rokeby, feature lion terms (the table illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, 1968, pl. 2). Robinson was an amateur architect and part of Lord Burlington's inner circle. He supervised the Great Wardrobe and, as a consequence, Goodison’s work for the Royal family.
- A serpentine commode, traditionally thought to have been supplied for Hugh Smithson, later 1st Duke of Northumberland, for his family seat at Stanwick Park, Yorkshire. This was recently sold by order of the 12th Duke of Northumberland and the trustees of the Northumberland Estates, Sotheby's, London, 9 July 2014, lot 7 (£1,516,100).
THE PROVENANCE
The commode boasts a distinguished and unbroken roster of celebrated 20th century British and American collectors. It was first recorded in the collection of Sir James Horlick, 1st Baronet (d. 1958), of malted milk fame, who aggrandized the Victorian Cowley Manor, Gloucester, the end of the 19th century. Its next owner, Jules S. Bache (d. 1944), was patron, philanthropist and a major donor of decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum. His paintings were gifted upon his death and the remaining works of art in his 814 Fifth Avenue mansion sold in the 1945 auction. The car magnate Walter P. Chrysler, whose passion for collecting began as a young boy, made such a significant gift to the Norfolk Museum in Virginia in 1971, that the institution was renamed after him. He lived in New York and Forker House (originally the Henri Bendel residence), in Great Neck, Long Island.
Notable examples in this group include:
- a pair of kneehole commode tables carved with owl terms, originally commissioned for Kent's patron Lord Burlington at Chiswick House and now in the collection of the Dukes of Devonshire at Chatsworth. In an exciting discovery during recent conservation, pencil signatures of ‘W Kent’, ‘B…’ (presumably for John Boson) and ‘Cornelius Martin/1735’ have been revealed (the latter a contemporary cabinet-maker who probably collaborated on their execution) (see M. Hirst, ‘Conservation discoveries: new insights into Lady Burlington’s ‘owl’ tables for her garden room at Chiswick’, Furniture History, 2014, pp. 205-215). Lady Burlington herself wrote to her husband in the same year: 'I hope signor [the Burlingtons' nickname for Kent] has remembered about my tables and glasses' underscoring his direct involvement in their commission (G. Beard, 'Some Thoughts on Benjamin Goodison', Partridge, Summer Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1988, p. 19). The pair of tables are listed in Boson’s receipt for ‘Carving work done for the Honourable Lady Burlington’ dated 11 September 1735. Significantly, ‘two Stands with Boy heads’ also appear on Boson’s receipt (Hirst, op. cit., fig. 3) and these compare closely to the figures on the present table (the stands are illustrated in S. Weber, ed., William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 512, fig. 18.63).
- a cherub-herm commode thought to have been supplied for the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1771) for St. Giles’s House, Dorset or his London home at 24 (now 27) Grosvenor Square, now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (W.74:1 to 4-1962). Shaftesbury commissioned architect Henry Flitcroft, successor to Kent as Master Mason and Deputy Surveyor of the Office of Works, to design the interiors of both houses. The Household Account Book at St. Giles’s shows significant payments to cabinet-maker William Hallett from 1745 and in 1743 a large payment ‘to Mr. Bosson [Boson] the carver £128’. The commode is illustrated in ‘Furniture at St. Giles’s, Dorset’, Country Life, 13 April 1935, p. 381, fig. 7, where the cherubs are visibly similar to the present table, and the feet are carved with a diaper pattern that corresponds to the term decoration here.
- a kneehole library table supplied to 2nd Duke of Montagu for Montagu House in circa 1737-41 and by descent to the Duke of Buccleuch at Boughton House, Northamptonshire. This piece is attributed to Goodison on the basis of surviving invoices showing him to have been the Duke's principal cabinet-maker, although Geoffrey Beard also unearthed payments in the Montagu accounts to John Boson in 1737 (Partridge, Summer Exhibition Catalogue, 1987). The table is illustrated in T. Murdoch ed., Boughton House, London, 1992 pp. 134, fig. 137. Others closely related form are discussed in Simon Sainsbury: The Creation of an English Arcadia, vol. I, Christie’s, London, 18 June 2008, lot 155 (£133,250).
- a pair of commodes with similar cherub-headed terms supplied to the 1st Duke of Richmond, probably for Richmond House, London and now at Goodwood House, Sussex (illustrated R. Edwards, 'Furniture at Goodwood', Country Life, 26 November 1932, p. 592, fig. 1).
- a pair of three-drawer commodes in the Royal Collection (purchased by Queen Mary) and originally commissioned by Sir Thomas Robinson for Rokeby Park, Yorkshire were recently exhibited at the Queen's Gallery (D. Shawe-Taylor, ed., The First Georgians, Art and Monarchy, London, 2014, exhibition catalogue, no. 117). These marble-topped commodes, and a kneehole table also from Rokeby, feature lion terms (the table illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, 1968, pl. 2). Robinson was an amateur architect and part of Lord Burlington's inner circle. He supervised the Great Wardrobe and, as a consequence, Goodison’s work for the Royal family.
- A serpentine commode, traditionally thought to have been supplied for Hugh Smithson, later 1st Duke of Northumberland, for his family seat at Stanwick Park, Yorkshire. This was recently sold by order of the 12th Duke of Northumberland and the trustees of the Northumberland Estates, Sotheby's, London, 9 July 2014, lot 7 (£1,516,100).
THE PROVENANCE
The commode boasts a distinguished and unbroken roster of celebrated 20th century British and American collectors. It was first recorded in the collection of Sir James Horlick, 1st Baronet (d. 1958), of malted milk fame, who aggrandized the Victorian Cowley Manor, Gloucester, the end of the 19th century. Its next owner, Jules S. Bache (d. 1944), was patron, philanthropist and a major donor of decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum. His paintings were gifted upon his death and the remaining works of art in his 814 Fifth Avenue mansion sold in the 1945 auction. The car magnate Walter P. Chrysler, whose passion for collecting began as a young boy, made such a significant gift to the Norfolk Museum in Virginia in 1971, that the institution was renamed after him. He lived in New York and Forker House (originally the Henri Bendel residence), in Great Neck, Long Island.