A George II Mahogany Commode, Circa 1750

Hotspur Ltd., London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 18 December 2007.

This commode appears to be of near-identical model to one formerly in the Percival Griffiths collection and might have originally formed a pair to it (illustrated in Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1924-27 Vol. II p.65 fig. 36 and p.45, fig.41 in the 1954 edition; also in Christian Jussel, English Furniture 1680 - 1760, The Percival D. Griffiths Collection, New Haven and London 2023, p.89 no. F51). The Griffiths example has more elaborate French-inspired handles and escutcheons, and its top appears to have applied spandrels at the corners; these could all possibly be later embellishments.

The Griffiths commode was in the celebrated interiors of his residence at Sandridgebury, a Queen Anne house near St Alban's, Hertfordshire, and appears in a 1930 photograph of the Drawing Room (illustrated in Jussel, p.298 fig. I.58). It had previously been in the collection of the Mackworth-Dolben family at Finedon Hall, a 17th/18th century manor house in Northamptonshire extensively rebuilt in the Jacobean style in the 19th century, and sold by the family with its contents in 1912. Interestingly, Griffiths owned a second chest of drawers of very similar design and scale also illustrated in the first edition of the Dictionary (Vol. II, p.65 fig. 35; also Jussel, p.89 no. F50).