ALMOST CERTAINLY BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1770-72

THE HAREWOOD HOUSE COMMISSION
Around 1767, Edwin Lascelles (1713-1795), later 1st Baron Harewood, selected Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) to furnish Harewood House, Yorkshire, in what would become the most valuable commission of the cabinet-maker’s career - the contract exceeded £10,000 through the period 1767-78 (determining the 'relative value' of historic transactions is fraught with challenges for historians, but this number would likely be equivalent to millions today). Under Lascelles' patronage Chippendale enjoyed an unprecedented freedom, both in the execution and extravagance of his designs, which in-turn fostered the flowering of his mature neoclassical style exemplified by this piece (C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, p. 195).

This rare documented commode is from an important group of four commodes supplied by Chippendale to Lascelles in the early 1770s, all of which were famously made with Chinese lacquer sourced by Lascelles himself. The commode can be identified in the full inventory compiled of Harewood House in 1795, and is further substantiated on a stylistic basis evidenced by the handle types and ‘carved enrichments’ which are used across pieces in the commission (ibid., p. 197). While the 1795 inventory lists four Chinese lacquer commodes, the descriptions are not detailed enough to distinguish them from one another. Therefore, there are four possibilities for the location of this commode in Harewood House. It was either in Lord Harewood’s Bedroom (there were ‘2 Japan Commodes’ listed), in the Couch Room (‘one Japan Commode’ listed), or in the Vestibule (‘One India Japand Chest’ listed, although it sounds more like a description for a coffer).

The Harewood House lacquer commodes were sold in the Christie’s sale of 28 June 1951. Three of the commodes were sold subsequently from the Collection of Sir James Horlick, Bt.; Christie’s, 22 November 1973, lots 56, 57 and 58.

SIR JAMES HORLICK, BT.
The commode formerly belonged to Sir James Horlick, 4th Baronet (d. 1958), who assembled a notable collection of 18th century English furniture with an eye to buying only the best. Sir Horlick’s collecting was driven by his passion for Chinese design, and this focus is evident in his exceptional group of Chinese mirror paintings and 18th century japanned and lacquer furniture, highlighted by this important commode and two others from Harewood House. The collection furnished Achamore House, his home on the tiny Isle of Gigha in the Scottish Western Isles three miles off the mainland. Achamore was built in 1884 for Lt. Col. William James Scarlett and remained in his family until 1944 when it was purchased with the island by the Horlicks. The collection was featured in a 1958 Connoisseur article entitled 'Chinoiserie in the Western Isles, the Collection of Sir James and Lady Horlick'.