An Adam Period Marquetry Commode
An Adam Period Marquetry Commode
An Adam Period Marquetry Commode
NEW YORK
AN ADAM PERIOD MARQUETRY COMMODE
Dimensions:
Height: 34 in (87 cm)
Length: 48 in (123 cm)
Depth: 20 in (52 cm)
Provenance:
Lady Sarah Cohen, purchased from Partridge, 1963.
By descent to her daughter, the late Irene Kreitman.
F2G0382 (FX079)
THE ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF ENGLISH FURNITURE
Two commodes
attributed to
Mayhew and
Ince in The Lady
Lever Collection
illustrated in
The Catalogue
of Commodes by
Lucy Wood, HMSO,
London, 1994,
colour plate 31 and
29.
A detail of the top of the commode at Badminton next to the top of this present example.
Illustrated in The Catalogue of Commodes by Lucy Wood, HMSO, London, 1994, page 232.
Robert Adam relied heavily on the designs and ornament of Ancient Rome in
his publications of designs, Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam
in 1773-78 and 1779. Adam’s engravings fuelled a craze for Roman classical
grandeur and order and marked a return to classic restraint and a greater
delicacy of ornament. The commission for this commode offered by Mallett
fell in the midst of this trend. Designers were deriving inspiration from Italy
as a result of the excavations at Herculaneum after 1738, Pompeii after 1748,
and with the engravings of Roman designs by Giovanni Piranesi after 1748.
Young noble Englishmen returning from their Grand Tour of the Continent
desired to transform their London houses and country seats into temples of
culture and luxury to reflect the classical architecture and ornament they
had studied. This desire for classical proportion, function and design was
extended from architecture to decoration. Mayhew and Ince collaborated
with Adam on a number of commissions including Syon House, Apsley
House, and Derby House, where the furniture and architectural detailing
was co-ordinated to produce a unified interior.
www.mallettantiques.com