ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE LANGLOIS, CIRCA 1765

The fashion for 'French' style furniture veneered with Asian lacquer re-used from imported screens was introduced in the 1750s by cabinet-makers such as Thomas Chippendale and Pierre Langlois. These elegant ormolu-enriched commodes reflect the exotic style of bedroom­ apartment furnishings of the mid-1760s. While the garden-pavilioned landscapes corresponded with contemporary Chinese-papered rooms, the glossy black surfaces also harmonized with 'Etruscan' apartments adorned with Wedgwood Etruria-ware, also in fashion that time.

Stylistically, the commodes relate most closely to the documented oeuvre of Pierre Langlois (d.1765) of Tottenham Court Road. The use of lacquer panels within a japanned carcass of serpentine outline is characteristic of Langlois' work and Lucy Wood identifies a recognizable group of similar design, including a pair formerly at Uppark Park, Sussex which feature the same chrysanthemum-flowered chinoiserie borders and similarly scalloped skirt (see L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, 1994, p. 77, figs. 62-63). Further commodes from this group include a pair in Coromandel lacquer almost certainly supplied to Francis Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford for Ragley Hall, Warwickshire and sold at Christie's, London, 4 July 1996, lot 300 (£308,000) and another formerly in the collections of the Dukes of Newcastle, Clumber, Nottinghamshire, and Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt. at Trent Park, which was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, Christie's, London, 29 March 1984, lot 105. The commodes further relate to the marble-topped pier table commodes supplied by Langlois in 1763 for the Gallery in Horace Walpole's Thames-side villa, Strawberry Hill. One of the commodes and a matching 'coin' (corner cabinet) is visible in a drawing of the Gallery by Thomas and Paul Sandby (reproduced in C. Wainwright, The Romantic Interior, New Haven and London, 1989, p. 105, fig. 85).

The commodes' pilasters terminate in Roman acanthus issuing from whorled volutes in the French fashion much favored by Langlois. The trifurcated feet mounts appear on other documented pieces such as the commode he supplied to the fourth Duke of Bedford for Woburn Abbey in 1760 (see: P. Thornton and W Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois, Ebeniste. Part 1', Connoisseur, February 1972, pp. 283-284) and the commode he supplied to the sixth Earl of Coventry George William, for Croome Court in 1764, now in the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (W.8:1 to 4-1967). These mounts, which are attributed to the émigré specialist bronze-caster and gilder Peter Dominique Jean, strengthen an attribution to Langlois.