Antique serpentine form chest of drawers made of plum pudding mahogany with crossbanding and stringing made of boxwood and ebony. This chest is an unusually exaggerated shape generous curve to the serpentine front. It it a nice feature that it has been designed with the lower drawer extending down to incorporate the scalloped frieze which opens with the drawer.
English circa 1770
Paper label inside the drawer “F G Shields, Miss Waugh’s sale, April 1905”.
Sold Bonhams, New Bond Street, London, 2007.
Haughton Castle, Hexham, purchased by the vendor’s grandfather at the 1905 Haughton Castle sale.
The design of this commode has close similarities to the work of the London cabinet-maker John Cobb(1715-78). Cobb often chose to adopt the French technique of making the lower drawer of his commodes form part of the shaped apron, rather than the English manner which incorporated the apron as part of the carcase. A similar commode is seen illustrated in M. Harris & Sons 1868-1968, page 118.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haughton_Castle
By appointment only.
