ATTRIBUTED TO INCE AND MAYHEW, CIRCA 1770

This elegant commode reflects the ‘French fashion’ popular in England in the 1770s. It can be attributed to the Golden Square cabinet-makers Ince and Mayhew as it shares several key features with other attributed and documented examples. The commode’s form and ornament with its transverse marquetry, hidden hinges to the doors and gadrooned ormolu border appear on other examples but it is the design and execution of the marquetry that reflects the inimitable hand of Ince and Mayhew. Their use of a central wreath suspended by ribbon-tied swags was a particular leitmotif as is the illusionistic nature of the ribbons winding underneath the borders to suspend the delicate naturalistic floral sprays. Commodes with variations of this treatment are illustrated and discussed in detail in Lucy Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London 1994, pp. 195-238); the most closely related examples to the present lot are a commode and a pair of corner cabinets supplied to Archibald Douglas (later 1st Baron Douglas) for his townhouse at 104 Pall Mall), a pair of commodes at Broadlands and a single commode in the Lady Lever Collection.
A closely related commode of the same form sold anonymously at Henry Dukes & Son 13-14 April 2000, lot 845 and now at Houghton, Norfolk shares the same ormolu border and sabots as well as the signature ribbon-tied garlands. Another commode with a solid front was possibly supplied to Thomas, 3rd Viscount Weymouth, later 1st Marquess of Bath (1734-1796) for Longleat, Wiltshire and sold at Christie’s, London, 13 June 2002, lot 345. A third related commode with a scagliola top sold anonymously at Christie’s, 9 July 2015, lot 154, displays the same angle mounts in ebonized wood rather than ormolu. Finally, a cabinet formerly in the collection of Ms. Penelope FitzGerald and sold by R.M. Broadhead at Christie’s, London, 9 April 1981, lot 82, has a very similar marquetry panel of a ribbon-tied ewer to those on the sides of the Lowther commode.
THE PROVENANCE: ANOTHER LINK TO INCE AND MAYHEW
The commode may have been supplied to James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale of the first creation (d. 1802), and descended to the 3rd Earl’s younger brother, William Lowther, (1821-1912). He had a particularly close relationship with his uncle, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, who remained a bachelor and died in 1872. The attribution to Ince and Mayhew comes through the 1stEarl Lonsdale’s patronage of the architect Robert Adam (1728-1792) as he designed the interiors for many of his aristocratic patrons and frequently commissioned Ince and Mayhew to execute the furnishings. The 1stEarl Lonsdale commissioned several architectural designs for Lowther Castle in the late 1760s which were never executed and Adam is known to have supplied a ceiling design in 1769 for their principal seat, Whitehaven Castle, when it was under construction.
This relationship, along with other furniture attributed to Ince and Mayhew at Campsea Ashe, Suffolk which was bought by William Lowther in 1883 and inherited by his son, James Lowther, Speaker of the House of Commons and later created 1st Viscount Ullswater (1855-1949), certainly raises the possibility they played a larger role in the interiors at Whitehaven, either executing works based on Adam’s designs or at the 1stEarl’s request. The contents of Campsea Ashe were sold after James Lowther’s death by Garrod, Turner and Son, 24-31 October 1949 and included a set of four giltwood torcheres, the design attributed to Robert Adam (lot 1217) and subsequently sold from the Collection of Professor Sir Albert Richardson P.R.A. at Christie’s, London 18-19 September 2013, lot 115. A pair of pedestals attributed to Ince and Mayhew also from the 1949 auction (lot 784) were subsequently sold by the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Christie’s, New York 27 October 2015, lot 116. Lowther Lodge, which had the present commode, was built for William Lowther by Richard Norman Shaw between 1872 and 1875. It was sold after his death in 1912 and is now the home of The Royal Geographical Society.