ATTRIBUTED TO HENRY HILL OF MARLBOROUGH, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

This commode with its striking flame mahogany book-matched veneers can be attributed to Henry Hill of Marlborough (d. 1778) based on a number of distinct stylistic and constructional features that appear in a group of commodes that are among both the documented and attributed work of this cabinet-maker. The distinctive serpentine profile, cabriole angles and scalloped apron, and the fine, book-matched veneers and ebonised mouldings appear on several commodes in the Lady Lever Art Gallery attributed to Hill and discussed by L. Wood in Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, no. 4, pp. 64-73. As in this example, most of Hill’s commodes feature a brushing slide above the top drawer (L. Wood, ‘Furniture for Lord Delaval: Metropolitan and Provincial’, Furniture History, vol. 26, 1990, p. 205, and Figures 7-13, 19-20, 23). While his craftsmanship is often associated with pine drawer bottoms, there is at least one other example, in addition to the commode offered here, where the drawers are constructed entirely of mahogany (ibid., p. 205). Lucy Wood illustrates three closely related commodes (in order of similarity): a mahogany commode, provenance unknown, formerly with Mallett; a commode sold Christie’s, London, 23 February 1989, lot 131 and a pair of commodes in the collection of The Rt. Hon. The Lord Methuen at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, a documented Henry Hill commission. A very similar commode with identical profile and ebonised mouldings is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, illustrated M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1982, p. 180.
Though Hill's furniture commissions were largely from Wiltshire families, they were among some of the most sophisticated patrons of the era. One exception was the commission for Sir John, later Lord Delaval, who was also a patron of the Royal cabinet-marker, John Cobb. Delaval was unique in that furniture made by Hill was for Lord Delaval’s London house.