A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED SATINEE AND BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD DRESSING COMMODE

The design for this Rococo dressing commode is possibly derived from more than one contemporary source including plate LXIII in the 3rd edition of Thomas Chippendale's Director (1763), and, in particular, plate XLI in Ince & Mayhew's The Universal System of Household Furniture (1762), which is very close. It relates to a group of commodes dating to the late 1760s/early 1770s by or attributed to Pierre Langlois (1718-67) that combine a restrained bombe curve to the front corners, the use of diagonal linear striping to form pronounced geometric patterns on the front, sides and top and his distinctive choice of decorative motifs including the fleur-de-lys at the corners of marquetry panels often inlaid with scrolling chains of husks and leaves. Although Langlois died in 1767, his widow, Tracey, continued to oversee the workshop after her husband’s death in 1767 through to circa 1773-74 at which date there were at least two significant sales of stock (L. Wood, ‘New Light on Pierre Langlois', The Furniture History Society Newsletter, no. 196, November 2014, pp. 5-6).