A commode of rectangular shape with canted front corners, raised on low feet, the front apparently showing six drawer fronts, in fact covering two long drawers below and two short drawers above. The commode is veneered with ebony inlaid with floral marquetry in a variety of woods (some stained), with ivory, the marquetry of the top centreling on a large vase of flowers. The front corners, feet and apron are set with gilt-brass mounts. The bail handles to the drawers and the keyhole escutcheons are gilt-brass and the edge of the top is set with an outline mount of gilt-brass.

Design
The commode is of rectangular form with canted front corners. The front gives the appearance of housing 6 drawer fronts but four of these are paired to create two long drawers below and two half-length drawers above. The commode is raised on four short outset bracket feet and the centre of the front is set with a shaped apron. The top of the canted corners are outset and these areas, the feet and the apron are set with gilt-brass mounts. Those on the canted corners cast with a console bracket above a pierced trophy that includes musical instruments, a quiver and a theatrical mask. The apron and feet mounts are more rococo in form, with pierced, foliate scrolls, the apron mount centreing on a cabochon. These are additions to the commode and the foot mounts appear to be opened out versions of a model designed for a narrow foot of a piece of furniture made at least half a century later. The drawers have bail handles, pendant from circular backplates cast with roundels of acanthus leaf. The left-hand roundel on the upper long drawer is a replacement. The top is edged with a plain gilt-brass moulding.

The commode is veneered in ebony and ebonized wood, inlaid with floral marquetry in a variety of woods, some stained and hot-sand shaded, and with ivory, and stringing of brass. The marquetry on the top shows a shaped framing fillet in light wood, bursting into foliage at different points, enclosing a large central basket filled with flowers,including peonies and carnations, standing on a shelf covered with drapery of textile, a motif known as a lambrequin. The design within the fillet is filled with inlay of birds eating fruit, butterflies, masks, a group of hounds and deer, all surrounding the basket and flowers. The sides of the commode are each set with an arrangement of flowers, including lilies and anenomes, arising out of a cup formed of acanthus leaves, set on a plinth, with symmetrical acanthus scrolls to either side. The lower part of each panel includes jasmine flowers in ivory. Each of the six apparent drawer fronts is set with a pair of cornucopiae or horns of plenty, from which emerge flowers, different on each drawer. Above each handle the marquetry shows a double branch of jasmine, the flowers in ivory. The canted front corners, the front of the dust boards between the drawers and the apparent central drawer dividers are set with formal strapwork motifs in lighter woods.

Construction
The commode is built as a three-sided, dove-tailed box, supported on the feet which are built up of several blocks of softwood that are glued and screwed to each other and to the underside of the case. The canted front corners are formed of shaped elements of ebonized wood glued and pinned to the front edge of the sides. The apron is cut from a single block of wood, attached to the case with glue-block. This may be a later addition. The case back is built of softwood boards set horizontally and is set in grooves in the case sides, the lower edge pinned into a rebate in the case bottom. The top is of softwood, of cleated construction. It is glued to the top of the case sides and back. A small wooden moulding is pinned to the front and side edges to support the brass moulding. The two dust boards are tenoned into the sides of the case. The divider between the top drawers is the only piece of oak used in the construction of the commode. It is glued and nailed in place. All four drawers are of poplar with softwood fronts. They are through-dovetailed at front and back, the joins at the front corners protected by quarter-round mouldings which are mitred at each corner. The grain of the drawer bottoms runs laterally on the small drawers and front-to-back on the large drawers. All are set in rebates in the base of the fronts, backs and sides.

The double-throw locks are replacements.

Bequeathed by Miss M. Coutts Trotter

By repute part of the furnishings of the Château de Montargis in 1832. Previous history undocumented. Purchased, together with four other pieces of furniture (1439 to 1442-1882) by Miss Margaret Coutts Trotter (1809-1882), by whom bequeathed to the Museum in 1882.

Montargis was owned by Philippe I, duc d'Orléans (1640-1701). The piece may have been purchased for one of his residences but this is not documented.

It is unlikely that this sophisticated, Paris-made piece of furniture was originally destined for the rather remote Chateau de Montargis, but it may have come there later from another Orléans property.

Commodes, as chests-of-drawers are known in France, were first made in the early years of the 18th century and rapidly became the most fashionable form of furniture, ousting the cabinets-on-stands that had held that place in the late 17th century.

This commode is richly decorated with floral marquetry. The flower heads would have been copied from one of the engravings of flowers published widely in Europe, with individual flowers set to compose these large bouquets. The top is the most elaborate design, centreing on a basket of flowers set within a framework of scrolls that is enlived with figures of birds, butterflies, cherubs and even hounds and deer, all shown at slightly different scale.

The marquetry has now faded to a uniform golden colour but would originally have been much more highly coloured, some colours achieved by staining the woods.

1443:1 to 6-1882