A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY SERPENTINE COMMODE

A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY SERPENTINE COMMODE
ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN COBB, MID 18TH CENTURY
With a moulded top above three graduated long drawers, the top drawer formerly fitted, the apron to the bottom drawer carved with foliage, C-scrolls and rockwork, the keeled foliate-carved angles surmounted by female terms with rocaille collars and gadrooned borders, acanthus and lapped lambrequins, and with hairy hoof sabots, the drawers with concave quarter-filets the legs cut down by about 8cm
75cm high, 126cm wide, 61cm deep

Provenance:
H. Percy Dean, Esq
Acquired January 1910, 'An Antique Chippendale commode from the Collection of Dr Deane, illustrated in Macquiod's "Age of Mahogany" plate X'.

Literature:
P. MacQuoid, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, plate X. L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 52

The commode, of elegant serpentine outline and enriched with bronze female terms to the angles is conceived in the `Picturesque' French antique manner introduced and promoted by Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) with the publication of the first edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754). It was almost certainly executed by John Cobb (d.1778), Chippendale's close neighbour with premises in St Martin's Lane, both of whom were highly aware of prevailing French designs. Cobb, with his partner William Vile (d.1767), held a Royal warrant from 1761 - 64 as `Cabinet makers and Upholsterers to His Majesty King George III' to supply furniture under the direction of the Great Wardrobe to St. James's Palace and The Queen's House (now Buckingham Palace). In partnership with Vile and in his early years as an independent craftsman after 1764, Cobb made mainly plain furniture in mahogany, rosewood, padouk and sabicu, but later in his career he became renowned for marquetry work, the pinnacle of which included the satinwood commode and matching pedestals supplied in 1772 - 74 to Paul Methuen for Corsham Court, Wiltshire.

The commode offered here, probably executed after 1764 relates to a pair of mahogany commodes from Blickling Hall, Norfolk, and another sabicu and padouk commode at Alscot Park, Warwickshire, by Cobb, that date from the mid-1760s and for which bills exist.

These and other related commodes are analysed in detail in Lucy Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, pp.43 - 53. A comparable commode was in the collection of Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bt., sold at Christie's, London, 27 March 1958, lot 82, and Wood notes similarity in the distinctive carved apron on the commode offered here with another sold by Mrs Venetia Gairdner, Lawrence Fine Art, Crewkerne, 19 February 1981, lot 215, and another from the Untermyer Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 64.101.1142).

According to the literature, the commode appears to be one of a pair, or two almost identical. While the lot offered here was illustrated by Percy Macquoid in The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, pl. X, correctly credited to Percy Dean, its counterpart, which retained its original longer legs, was later illustrated in an article by Herbert Cescinsky, `The collection of the Hon. Sir John Ward, K.C.V.O.', part IV, Connoisseur, August 1921, pp. 195 - 7, fig. III (and Macquoid later muddled the two commodes in his Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed, 1953, vol. II, p. 114, fig. 10, illustrating the Ward commode but crediting it to Percy Dean).

Related commodes attributed to Cobb sold at auction include two from the collection of Lord & Lady Weinstock, Christie's, London, 22 November 2022, lot 89 (of three long drawers, the bottom drawer displaying similar carving and with carved angles and feet) and lot 94 (of two short and two long drawers, with a shaped but not carved rail below the bottom drawer, but with the same ormolu angle mounts and sabots).