The antique sarcophagus-scrolled commode is serpentined in the French 'picturesque' manner. Its reed-banded top is parquetried in a Roman-mosaic with a central lozenged compartment such as appears on a commode attributed to the court cabinet-maker, John Cobb (d. 1778) of St Martin's Lane (in the possession of Moss Harris & Sons in the 1940s and sold Christie's, London, 24 November 2005, lot 92). Its poetic laurel-wreath ormolu enrichments correspond to the 'large handsome wrought furniture' described by Cobb in 1766 on a serpentined 'commode chest of drawers' supplied for Alscot Park, Warwickshire (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 51, fig. 35).