A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE COMMODES
Prospective purchasers are advised that several co… Read more THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN (LOTS 140-142)
A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE COMMODES

ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1765-75

Details
A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE COMMODES
ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1765-75
Each with a shaped rectangular quarter-veneered top centred by an oval medallion of figured Honduras mahogany with a moulded edge above four graduated mahogany-lined drawers flanked by rounded angles and with serpentine sides on shaped bracket feet, handles apparently orginal, with laminated feet and red wash
33 in. (84 cm.) high; 42 in. (107 cm.) wide; 24 in. (61 cm.) deep (2)
Provenance
Lady Adair, Flixton Hall, Suffolk
Sir Harold Harmsworth.
Acquired from Moss Harris 1959 and then by descent to the present owner.
Special notice
Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.
Sale room notice
Please note the additional provenance for this lot; Sold by Direction of Major-General Sir Allan H.S Adair, Flixton Hall house sale, 27 November - 1 December 1950, lot 1080,
and The Property of the late Sir Harold Harmsworth, sold Christie's, London, 7 May 1953, lot 95.
The height of the commodes in inches should read 33 in. and not 23in. as stated in the printed catalogued.

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Giles Forster
Giles Forster

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Lot Essay

These superb mahogany commodes of elegantly serpentined form evoking Cupid's bow are designed for the window piers of a bedroom apartment, their tops centred by oval medallions of finely figured Honduras mahogany which is used again on the moulded leading edges of the angles. They show many characteristics of the work of Thomas Chippendale, not least their exemplary execution and finest quality mahogany. The use of a thin red colour wash on the backboards, the laminated blocking supporting the bracket foot and the short grain 'kickers' to stabilise the drawers when open are constructional features closely associated with Chippendale, while the foot pattern has parallels with a serpentine commode probably supplied to John, Viscount Mountstuart, later 4th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bute for Cardiff Castle in 1766 and later moved to Dumfries House (see Christie's sale catalogue, 12 June 2007, lot 85). Similar oval medallions featured on a serpentine writing-table attributed to Chippendale sold Christie's London, 'Dealing in Excellence, A Celebration of Hotspur and Jeremy', 20 November 2008, lot 65.

FLIXTON HALL
Flixton Hall, near Bungay in Suffolk, in its first guise was built in 1615 on the land of the former Flixton Priory, for the Tasburgh family. The original house was a three-storey building with a rectangular U-shape and central projecting entrance way surrounded by a moat. When the male lines of the Tasburgh family and their successor the Wyborne family died out, the estate was sold in 1750 to Alexander Adair, a Scot whose family had moved to Ireland a century earlier.
In 1837, the renowned architect-designer, Anthony Salvin (1799-1881) who had trained in the offices of John Nash in London, was commissioned by Sir Robert Shafto Adair to make improvements to Flixton Hall, which at this time was part of an estate of 850 acres. Following a fire in 1846 that interrupted the building work it would seem that Salvin's brief changed and a new house, not dissimilar to the old in style, was built in a pseudo Elizabethan-Jacobean fashion with tall chimneys, battlemented parapets, pinnacles, a cupola and mullioned windows. Contemporary reports suggest that the Hall's interiors were a perfect Jacobean reproduction, being described as Salvin's most extravagant decoration. Other fashionable Victorian architect-designers also contributed to the rebuilding including Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) and Fairfax Bloomfield Wade who added an ornate octagonal tower with a 'wedding cake' on top and a florid entrance porch. The new Flixton Hall was a house of sixty rooms; the final cost of its reconstruction being £29,000.
Flixton Hall remained the Suffolk seat of the Adair family until after World War II. In November 1950, the contents were dispersed in a five day sale and two years later the house was demolished.

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