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拍品专文
This magnificent commode is not recorded in either the Wrotham Park or St. James's Square 1847 Inventories. First recorded as the Property of Viscount Enfield in 1906, it was almost certainly inherited from his maternal grandfather, Philip John Miles of Leigh Court. Its first probably inventory reference is that for a 'Shaped Mahogany Chest of 3 long Drawers' described in the STRAFFORD HEIRLOOMS of circa 1918.
The pier commode-table, serpentined in the George II French picturesque fashion with a cupid-bow façade, has its moulded top and stepped plinth wreathed by pearled ribbon-guilloches. Roman acanthus foliage festoons its cut-corner pilasters, whose truss-scrolled consoles and sarcophagus-scrolled feet revive the antique 17th century Roman fashion of Inigo Jones (d.1652) as popularised through publications of court architects such as William Kent (d.1748) and John Vardy (d.1756). The drawers are framed by flowered ribbon-guilloches, while the table frieze is garlanded by a Grecian flowered ribbon-fret. The latter, like the console trusses, derive from one of Kents frame pattern of the 1730s (Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744 (pl.36). While the feet display Venus shell badges, the commode angles are fretted in flowered lozenge compartments to evoke Romes Temple of Venus. Likewise lyric poetry and loves triumph are recalled by the French-fashioned golden bas-relief bronze trophies, whose escutcheon's cartouches are wreathed by palms and laurels.
The '2 exceeding rich mahogany commodes of fine wood & wrought ornaments' supplied for London's Mansion House in 1752 by Messrs Kilpin, Chesson and Saunders featured the same shaped top supported on flower-festooned angle trusses (S. Jeffrey, The Mansion House, London, 1993, pp.165, fig 138). The same picturesque patterned handles appear on a Chippendale commode that was on the London Art Market in the early 1990s (Advertised by Apter Fredericks Ltd, Grosvenor House Antiques Fair Catalogue, 1993) as well as on a four-drawer commode illustrated in R. W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, p.39, fig.28. The handle pattern itself, but not the flowered backplate, is illustrated in T. Crom, An Eighteenth Century English Brass Hardware Catalogue, Florida, 1994, no.303.
This commode forms part of a group which share very restrained serpentine shape, superbly chosen and matched timbers and more or less carved canted angles. These acanthus-headed angles are inspired by the 'French Commode Tables' illustrated in Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762, particularly plate LX IX.
Three commodes from the group that were supplied in the mid-1760s to the 5th Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, are now attributed to the Clerkenwell Close cabinet-maker William Gomm & Son. Designs exist in Gomm's sketchbook (now in the Downs MSS in the Winterthur Library, Delaware, U.S.A) and there is confirmatory account evidence. The commodes were sold from Stoneleigh, Christie's London, 3 May 1962, lots 53 and 54. The larger and grander was resold 5 July 1990, lot 149. Gomm's drawing in fact incorporates several ideas in addition to those that make up the Stoneleigh commodes and it is interesting that the final product should be the most massive and stately of the alternatives. The end result fits into a larger group, by several cabinet-makers.
A plainer commode almost certainly executed in the same workshop as the Miles/Strafford Commode , with directly comparable richly carved angles, rosette diadems to the inner facing and identical profile of the feet enriched with scrolled acanthus of the same pattern is in the Noel Terry Collection, York (The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture and Clocks, 1987, no.73). This latter commode has also frustratingly survived without a recorded 18th century provenance; it is first cited in the Ernest Raphael Collection, Sotheby's London, 9 November 1945, lot 168.
The flowered key-fret border features on the celebrated pair of pier glasses supplied by John Boson, with tables en suite for the Summer Parlour at Chiswick House in 1735. Almost certainly executed after designs by Kent for the Countess of Burlington's own use, they were invoiced as 'two rich Glas frames with folidge and other ornaments' at a cost of £15. These are discussed in John Cornforth, Early Georgian Interiors, London, 2004, pp.184-5.
The pier commode-table, serpentined in the George II French picturesque fashion with a cupid-bow façade, has its moulded top and stepped plinth wreathed by pearled ribbon-guilloches. Roman acanthus foliage festoons its cut-corner pilasters, whose truss-scrolled consoles and sarcophagus-scrolled feet revive the antique 17th century Roman fashion of Inigo Jones (d.1652) as popularised through publications of court architects such as William Kent (d.1748) and John Vardy (d.1756). The drawers are framed by flowered ribbon-guilloches, while the table frieze is garlanded by a Grecian flowered ribbon-fret. The latter, like the console trusses, derive from one of Kents frame pattern of the 1730s (Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744 (pl.36). While the feet display Venus shell badges, the commode angles are fretted in flowered lozenge compartments to evoke Romes Temple of Venus. Likewise lyric poetry and loves triumph are recalled by the French-fashioned golden bas-relief bronze trophies, whose escutcheon's cartouches are wreathed by palms and laurels.
The '2 exceeding rich mahogany commodes of fine wood & wrought ornaments' supplied for London's Mansion House in 1752 by Messrs Kilpin, Chesson and Saunders featured the same shaped top supported on flower-festooned angle trusses (S. Jeffrey, The Mansion House, London, 1993, pp.165, fig 138). The same picturesque patterned handles appear on a Chippendale commode that was on the London Art Market in the early 1990s (Advertised by Apter Fredericks Ltd, Grosvenor House Antiques Fair Catalogue, 1993) as well as on a four-drawer commode illustrated in R. W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, p.39, fig.28. The handle pattern itself, but not the flowered backplate, is illustrated in T. Crom, An Eighteenth Century English Brass Hardware Catalogue, Florida, 1994, no.303.
This commode forms part of a group which share very restrained serpentine shape, superbly chosen and matched timbers and more or less carved canted angles. These acanthus-headed angles are inspired by the 'French Commode Tables' illustrated in Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762, particularly plate LX IX.
Three commodes from the group that were supplied in the mid-1760s to the 5th Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, are now attributed to the Clerkenwell Close cabinet-maker William Gomm & Son. Designs exist in Gomm's sketchbook (now in the Downs MSS in the Winterthur Library, Delaware, U.S.A) and there is confirmatory account evidence. The commodes were sold from Stoneleigh, Christie's London, 3 May 1962, lots 53 and 54. The larger and grander was resold 5 July 1990, lot 149. Gomm's drawing in fact incorporates several ideas in addition to those that make up the Stoneleigh commodes and it is interesting that the final product should be the most massive and stately of the alternatives. The end result fits into a larger group, by several cabinet-makers.
A plainer commode almost certainly executed in the same workshop as the Miles/Strafford Commode , with directly comparable richly carved angles, rosette diadems to the inner facing and identical profile of the feet enriched with scrolled acanthus of the same pattern is in the Noel Terry Collection, York (The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture and Clocks, 1987, no.73). This latter commode has also frustratingly survived without a recorded 18th century provenance; it is first cited in the Ernest Raphael Collection, Sotheby's London, 9 November 1945, lot 168.
The flowered key-fret border features on the celebrated pair of pier glasses supplied by John Boson, with tables en suite for the Summer Parlour at Chiswick House in 1735. Almost certainly executed after designs by Kent for the Countess of Burlington's own use, they were invoiced as 'two rich Glas frames with folidge and other ornaments' at a cost of £15. These are discussed in John Cornforth, Early Georgian Interiors, London, 2004, pp.184-5.