A commode of serpentine form, with two doors enclosing shelves and small drawers, the exterior veneered with marquetry of several tropical woods, showing oveal panels on each door, on the top and on each side, those on the front inlaid with urns containing flowers, that on the top showing fruit in a basket. The top, front and sides are outlined with braod framing panels showing alternate motifs of anthemia (honeysuckle) and four-petalled flower heads.

Commode of serpentine form, with two doors enclosing shelves and small drawers, the exterior veneered with marquetry of several tropical woods, showing oveal panels on each door, on the top and on each side, those on the front inlaid with urns containing flowers, that on the top showing fruit in a basket. The top, front and sides are outlined with braod framing panels showing alternate motifs of anthemia (honeysuckle) and four-petalled flower heads.

Purchased from Messrs Frank Partridge and Sons Ltd, London (Registered File 1996/37)

Exhibited at the Loan Exhibition of English Decorative Arts at Lansdowne House, 17th to 28th February 1929, in aid of the Invalid Children's Association, no. 417, illustrated on plate LXXXIX of the illustrated catalogue by A.J.B. Wace, published at the time of the exhibition. The commode was lent by Mr J. Thursby Pelham.

A number of related commodes have been recorded, one of them formerly in the collection of the Earl of Ilchester and another, formerly the property of the late Viscount Leverhulme adn sold in New York in 1926. They are normally attributed to John Cobb, owing to their close similarity to a very splendid commode supplied by him for Corsham Court, Wiltshire, in 1772.

The commode was once owned by the Countess of Portsmouth, Hurstbourne Park, Hampshire, and sold through Christie’s in 1922.

This commode is part of a group of commodes with related floral marquetry, all attributed to the London cabinet-maker John Cobb (1715-1778), who worked in St Martin's Lane. In the middle of the 18th century this street was the centre of the fine cabinet-making trade and Cobb's neighbours included Thomas Chippendale. This group of commodes with floral marquetry are thought to be by him because, in 1772, he supplied a commode of very close design to Corsham Court, Wiltshire.

W.30:1to:8-1937