A small commode in flame-figured mahogany veneered on a carcase of oak and poplar, with lacquered brass mounts. The front is flanked by to attached columns raised on paw feet, supporting the frieze that contains a single full-width drawer, with three wide drawers below, set back from the frieze. The top, of white marble is probably a replacement

A small rectangular commode in flame-figured mahogany veneered on a carcase of oak and poplar, with lacqueredbrass mounts. The commode is raised on a slightly projecting plinth. The front is flanked by to attached columns raised on paw feet, supporting the frieze that contains a single full-width drawer, with three wide drawers below, set back from the frieze. The top, of white marble is probably a replacement. Each of the three lower drawers shows two ring handles hanging from the mouth of lions. The central keyhole mounts on all the drawers are cast with flowers, the one for the top drawer of slightly larger size. On the blocks above each column there is a mount of a basket of flowers.

The Bettine, Lady Abingdon Collection. Bequeathed by Mrs T. R. P. Hole

One of a large number of pieces of French furniture, ceramics, metalwork, books and other decorative arts, from the Empire period and earlier, acquired in Paris by Charles Stuart (from 1828 1st Lord Stuart de Rothesay) (1779--1845). The Empire furnishings were probably purchased during his first period as ambassador to Paris (1815--1824), but this commode, which is probably from the Restauration period (see under Attribution), is more likely to have been acquired during his second embassy (1828--30) -- as most probably were the earlier furnishings in the collection.
The Empire and Restauration furnishings may have been intended for a London house. Stuart acquired 4 Carlton House Terrace, where improvements were carried out from 1827 to 1831, and he moved in in 1834. Older furnishings were more probably purchased for his country house, Highcliffe Castle, Hampshire (now Dorset), which was remodelled and enlarged in the most ambitious Gothic style from 1830 to 1834, with some work continuing throughout the 1830s. In 1841 the house in Carlton House Terrace was let, and the family moved their London residence to Whitehall Yard. It was possibly at that time -- or in 1845, the date of Lord Stuart de Rothesay's death -- that the Empire furnishings were moved to Highcliffe.
Lord Stuart de Rothesay's collections were inherited in 1867 by his younger daughter Louisa, Lady Waterford (1818--1891), who maintained Highcliffe Castle. She left the house and its collections to her distant cousin Major-General Edward Stuart Wortley (1857--1934). When his younger daughter Elizabeth ('Bettine') married Montagu Bertie, 8th Earl of Abingdon, in 1928, he bought the castle and its contents from his father-in-law. The Abingdons sold Highcliffe and most of its contents in 1949, but retained the present group of furniture and some other pieces. After her husband's death in 1963, Lady Abingdon lived for much of the time with her close friends Mr and Mrs Tahu Hole, to whom she bequeathed all her personal possessions on her death in 1978. Tahu Hole died in 1985, and a year later his widow Joyce approached the Museum and offered the collection as a bequest. She died in December 1986, and in accordance with her will the Museum chose those items that it wished to add to its collections. Other items from the collection were sold to benefit the Museum, and the proceeds added to the funds bequeathed.

The floral -- rather than classical -- character of the mounts suggests that this was probably made in the early years of the Restauration rather than in the Empire period.

This commode forms part of a group of furniture acquired in Paris by Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who served twice as British ambassador there (1815-1824 and 1828-1830). Most of his brass-mounted mahogany furniture dates from the Empire period and was probably acquired during his first embassy; but this commode, with its naturalistic floral mounts, is more likely to have been made in the years of the 'Restauration' (1815-1830) of the Bourbon monarchy and purchased by Stuart on his second visit. He brought his furniture back to Britain to use both in his London home and Highcliffe Castle, the house in Dorset that he built in 1830-1834.

W.23:1 to 7-1987