LATE 18TH/ EARLY 19TH CENTURY

This charmingly decorated dressing-commode appears to share elements of its painted decoration and identical Sheffield Plate handles to a George III satinwood bowfront dressing commode, dated circa 1820, with two doors, rather than drawers, in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, pp. 276-277, no. 36). Whilst the name of Seddon & Sons is often synonymous with painted satinwood furniture there is insufficient evidence to firmly attribute either commode, however, it raises the distinct possibility that both were made in the same workshop. Further parallels can be drawn with the two items in the Victoria & Albert Museum collection, satinwood dressing-table [635:1 to 27-1870] and a satinwood commode [636-1870], which also share very similar painted floral garlands and identical Sheffield Plate handles. Both were acquired from James James (1819-1879), one of the earliest collectors of English painted satinwood furniture, again it has not been possible to attribute either to a known workshop. A George III polychrome-decorated satinwood D-shaped commode, decorated with oval figural panels en grisaille, rather than classical urns seen on the present commode, was sold from the Collection of Niki and Joe Gregory, Sotheby's, New York, 24 October 2013, lot 59 ($93,750 including premium).