CIRCA 1770

The commode, with reed-banded tablets of fine figured mahogany, is elegantly serpentined with a bowed front and Grecian-scrolled feet. Like a related commode sold Christies King Street on 24th November 2005 (lot 113), it is fitted with fine locks intended for S-bitted keys, that appear to have been a speciality of the Gascoigne family, whose St.James's firm flourished from the 1770s to the 1790s. Their locks, which are sometimes stamped, have been recorded on furniture by leading London makers such as Thomas Chippendale (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, vol. 1, p.253 and vol. 11 fig. 267).