AN ENGLISH MAHOGANY COMMODE

The commode's 'Roman' architecture, with drawer-nests raised on triumphal arches and framed by Bacchic lion-headed and truss-scrolled pilasters, corresponds to that of the library-table designed in the late 1730s for George II's St. James's Palace library by the Rome-trained artist, William Kent (d. 1748) (D. Watkin, The Royal Interiors of Regency England, London, 1984, p. 56). A related library table was supplied for Badminton House, Gloucestershire (P. Macquoid, A History of English Furniture, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, fig. 161). The cornice of this commode, with Roman acanthus tied by a pearled reed, also corresponds to that of a lion-hermed library table believed to have come from Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire and acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1948 (J. F. Hayward, English Desks and Bureaux, London, 1968).