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Lot Essay
This form of chest of drawers with elegantly serpentined and moulded top on a rectilinear chest with hollowed-truss feet, relates to that of a 'commode' chest of drawers supplied in 1768 for Mersham-le-Hatch, Kent, by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779). Its antique pattern of reed-and-pateraed handles was also adopted by Chippendale at this period. They feature on a green and gold japanned clothes-press supplied to Sir Rowland Winn for the closet adjoining the State bedchamber at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, figs. 203, 239 & 263).
The use of exotic timber, cedar-lined drawers and concave quarter-fillets combined with a fairly deep overhang at the rear of the moulded is in common with other commodes attributed to John Cobb (d. 1778) of St. Martin's Lane, cabinet-maker to George III. The same features were displayed by the pair of black and gold lacquer commodes supplied to the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1771) for St Giles's House, Dorset and sold by the Earl of Shaftesbury in these Rooms, 11 November, 1999, lot 100 (£276,500).
The use of exotic timber, cedar-lined drawers and concave quarter-fillets combined with a fairly deep overhang at the rear of the moulded is in common with other commodes attributed to John Cobb (d. 1778) of St. Martin's Lane, cabinet-maker to George III. The same features were displayed by the pair of black and gold lacquer commodes supplied to the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1771) for St Giles's House, Dorset and sold by the Earl of Shaftesbury in these Rooms, 11 November, 1999, lot 100 (£276,500).