Attributed to William Vile and John Cobb, circa 1765, originally with a carved apron and with consequential modifications to the legs The serpentine top with outset ears over three long drawers mounted with bearded mask and scroll-cast escutcheon and loop handles with sunflower backplates, the angles headed by ormolu female masks with elaborate headresses, ruffled collars and beaded surround above an acanthus spray, the angles with incised patterning, with ormolu-cloven feet headed by foliate brackets, two ormolu feet later 351/4in. (89cm.) high, 501/4in. (128cm.) wide, 24in. (61cm.) deep PROVENANCE Mrs. Langdale Smith, sold Christie's London, 24 October 1957, lot 87. The collection of Michael Behrens, Esq., Culham Court, Oxfordshire, sold by Order of the Executors, Christie's London, 6 July 1989, lot 162 (œ82,500). Acquired from Partridge (Fine Arts) Ltd., London. NOTES This commode, with its Roman-acanthus serpentined 'truss' pilasters and characteristic lacquered-brass metalwork, belongs to a distinctive group dating from the 1760s that can be confidently attributed to the Royal cabinet-makers William Vile and John Cobb. Discussed in depth by Lucy Wood in her Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, pp.43-53, this group is anchored by the Alscot Park commode, which was supplied by Cobb to James West in 1766 and invoiced as an 'extra fine wood commode chest of drawers with large handsome wrought furniture, good brass locks, etc. œ16' (H. Honour, Cabinet Makers and Furniture Designers, London, 1969, p.112). This hypothesis is convincingly underlined by documentary evidence linking Vile and Cobb with other related commodes, as well as known working relationship between the cabinet-makers and the houses to which these commodes were supplied. Most notably, at Blickling there is a payment by the 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire to 'Vile & Cobb cabinet-makers' in August 1762 for œ86.5s.9d, which is sufficient to account for the four R‚gence pattern commodes and a further related example. The latter of these shares the same mounts and other distinguishable features with that supplied to Alscot. A further related group of five commodes, including two pairs, were supplied to the 9th Earl of Exeter for Burghley House, Lincolnshire. Whilst Vile and Cobb are not documented at Burghley, Wood presents the possibility that they may have been subcontracted by another firm such as Mayhew and Ince, and it is perhaps significant, therefore, that a former apprentice of Cobb's was employed at Burghley from at least 1772. A further suite of five commodes were supplied to John, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham (d.1812) for Ashburnham Place, Sussex (sold at the Sotheby's house sale of 7-9 July 1953, lots 135-136). Although the original bill does appear in the surviving - and post-1763 - bank accounts of the 2nd Earl, these commodes almost certainly predate the surviving bills and interestingly Cobb was employed by the Earl in 1772. JOHN COBB John Cobb (d.1778), 'one of the proudest men in England' who strutted 'through his workshops giving orders to his men in full dress of the most superb and costly kind', is first recorded in the London Directory in 1750. Entering into partnership with William Vile in 1751, he became a close neighbour of Chippendale's in St. Martin's Lane, and it is interesting to note that this commode follows Chippendale's 1753 pattern for a 'French Commode table' issued in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director of 1754, pl.LXVI. Following their appointment as cabinet-makers to George III in 1761, Messrs. Vile and Cobb became the principal suppliers of furniture to Queen Charlotte's Buckingham House, now Palace. RELATED COMMODES BY JOHN COBB This elegantly bowed commode, veneered in beautifully figured mahogany and ormolu-mounted in the French manner with espagnolette masks and reed-gadrooned handles suspended from acanthus-flowered paterae, originally conceived with a pierced carved apron, belongs to a distinctive group within Cobb's oeuvre. These comprise:- 1-That retaining its original carved apron and identically mounted, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (61.242.1), illustrated in Wood, ibid., fig.37. 2- Another, with apron carving forming the bottom edge of the lower drawer, illustrated from the H. Percy Dean Collection in P. Macquoid, A History of English Furniture, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1908, col. pl.X, and in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954, vol.1, p.155 fig. 10. This commode was subsequently published in the collection of Sir John Ward, K.C.V.O. 3-A third, also with carving forming the lower edge of the bottom drawer, offered by Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bt., Christie's London, 27 March 1958, lot 82. 4-A fourth, lacking its original apron carving, sold at Neal Auction Company, New Orleans, November 2000 ($260,000 plus premium). A further related group of commodes, but with carved angles instead of espagnolette masks, includes that sold anonymously in these Rooms, 19 April 2001, lot 148 ($446,000). THE METALWORK Indicative of both Cobb's creative process and his awareness of printed designs, the distinctive pattern for the 'handsome wrought furniture' - i.e.: the reeded handles and paterae backplate - feature in a mid-eighteenth century metalworker's pattern book now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (nos. 1840 and 647) (N. Goodison, 'The Victoria and Albert Museum's Collection of Metalwork Pattern Books', Furniture History, 1975, figs.22 and 42). This same hardware was employed elsewhere in Cobb's oeuvre, including on the pair of Chinese lacquer commodes supplied to St. Giles' House, Dorset (sold Christie's London, 11 November 1999, lot 100) as well as on the commode from the H. Percy Dean Collection, displaying a closely related carved apron illustrated in Percy Macquoid's The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, color plate X. The same escutcheons, handles, backplates and espagnolette mask mounts were also employed by Cobb on the less elaborate suite of Ashburnham commodes, of which one was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 19 October 2000, lot 106 ($166,500), as well as on that supplied to the 5th Duke of Bolton for Hackwood Park, sold anonymously at Christie's London, 8 July 1999, lot 62 (œ199,500). Interestingly, a marble topped French commode dating to circa 1715 with precisely the same pattern mounts was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 7 December 1978, lot 109 (illustrated by L. Wood, op.cit, p.47, fig.26). The handle pattern also features on furniture attributed to the Parisian ‚beniste /dealer Noel Gerard (d.1736) who was patronised by the English aristocracy, including James, Viscount Chewton and Earl Waldegrave, whose purchases in 1733 were made while he served as George II's ambassador to the Emperor of Germany (see A. PradŠre, French Furniture Makers, London, 1989, pp.111-114).
Attributed to William Vile and John Cobb, circa 1760-65 The brass-rimmed serpentine top with central oval inlay and green-stained line-inlaid borders over a conforming case with a pair of shaped doors and shaped apron centered by a central oval panel of figured mahogany framed at the top and sides by palmette clasps and enclosing four mahogany-lined drawers with lacquered brass handles, the sides similarly inlaid with palmette-clasped ovals, with foliate and scroll-cast angle mounts continuing to bellflower-cast chutes and pierced foliate sabots, the top corrected for warping 331/2in. (85cm.) high, 43in. (109cm.) wide, 221/2in. (57cm.) deep PROVENANCE Acquired by Eric Moller, Esq. for Thorncombe Park, Surrey, or his brother Ralph for White Lodge, near Newmarket, Suffolk under the advice of R.W. Symonds. Anonymous Sale, Sotheby's London, 17 November 1989, lot 84 (œ110,000). With Partridge (Fine Arts) Ltd., London, illustrated in Partridge, Summer Edition, 1990 no. 17, pp. 48-50). Acquired from Hotspur Ltd., London. LITERATURE R.W. Symonds, Furniture Making in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England, London, 1955, pp.113-114, pl.167-168. The Connoisseur, September 1954 (advertisement for R.W. Symonds, Furniture Making in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England ). NOTES This elegant pier-commode, conceived in the George III 'French' picturesque manner was designed to be placed beneath a gilded pier glass. Such 'French' style commodes embellished with ormolu mounts began to make their appearance in fashionable English drawing-rooms and most appropriately bedrooms in the 1760s. Their ornament was partly inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses concerning loving deities. The commode's top is serpentined with cupid-bow front wrapped by a golden reed that evokes Pan's Arcadian paradise. Love's target is recalled with rayed parquetry on the 'Roman-mosaic' top issuing from a beribboned Roman-medallion cartouche of marble-figured mahogany. Its scallop-fretted facade and sides display similar targets flowered with triumphal palms in cartouches of husk-festooned Roman acanthus that are tied at the frame, while the angles are festooned with golden husks issuing from flowered cartouches and terminate in scrolled whorls of Roman foliage. THE ATTRIBUTION TO ROYAL CABINET-MAKERS WILLIAM VILE AND JOHN COBB The commode displays many of the characteristics found in the work of the Royal Cabinet-Makers William Vile (d. 1767) and John Cobb. The luminescent quality of the timber within the oval frames, the crisply-carved details and the use of clasped ovals all relate to examples attributed to this celebrated partnership. Vile trained with, and was financed by, the cabinet-maker William Hallett when he came into partnership with Cobb. Hallett's influence is clearly discerned in the work of his disciple, particularly in the use of foliated ovals. A pair of commodes supplied to Sir Francis Dashwood at Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire (now in the Jon Gerstenfeld collection; illustrated in E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, p.192, no.3) and another supplied to the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury, St. Giles's House, Dorset (illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, New York, 1968, pl.9) feature such ovals. Hallett is documented as working at both houses and has been ascribed authorship of both these pieces. The single stylistic trait of a foliated oval must be treated with caution as other cabinet-makers also used this device, including Benjamin Goodison (on a table press supplied to Holkham in 1757) and John Linnell (note a design illustrated in H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, New York, 1980, vol.II, p.10, fig.16). Furthermore, one must consider the contribution of Vile and Cobb's specialist carver John Bradburne (d.1781), who succeeded Vile as Royal Cabinet-Maker to George III upon the latter's retirement in 1764 (Cobb was duly dismissed at this time). Similarly embellished commodes of more monumental form include one sold by the late Mark Hellyer, Esq., Christie's London, 9 July 1992, lot 158 (illustrated in A. Coleridge, ibid, p.212, fig.389) and a pair from the collection of H.J. Joel, Childwickbury, Hertfordshire, Christie's house sale, 15 May 1978, lot 68, both of which draw affinities with Vile's stylistic traits and Bradburne's own documented furniture, notably a commode supplied to Buckingham Palace in 1770. While the Vile/Cobb partnership was long-lasting, the lightness of form and ornamentation conceived in a more neoclassical fashion suggest a date around the time the firm was supplying furniture to King George III and Queen Charlotte's State Apartments at Buckingham Palace from 1761-1765. Many of these Royal examples again prominently display the oval motifs, notably on Queen Charlotte's jewel cabinet and her secretaire cabinet, both supplied in 1761 (see A. Coleridge, op.cit, pl.12 and 13). However, the unusual anthemion clasp displayed here is apparently unique and reflects the earliest stirrings of English Neo-Classicism grafted onto a Rococo form. The classicism of this commode also recalls the 1763-1764 commission undertaken by Vile and Cobb for Lord Coventry at Croome Court as supervised by the architect/designer Robert Adam and employing the specialist carver Sefferin Alken (G. Beard, 'Vile and Cobb, eighteenth-century London furniture makers', The Magazine Antiques, June 1990, p.1399 and 1045, pl.IX, fig.2). The most compelling argument for a Vile/Cobb attribution are the stylistic and contruction features that are also exhibited on later work executed by Cobb after Vile retired. Stylistically, this piece shares the same serpentine outline and distinctively shaped apron, the seamless joining of the doors without interruption to the facade, a large central oval to the top, front and sides (although usually executed in marquetry throughout) and ormolu-rimmed top. From a construction standpoint, the feet are distinctively formed from V-shaped additions that extend from the elongated stiles. These constructional and stylistic characteristics feature on a group discussed by Lucy Wood in her Catalogue of Commodes, Woodbridge, 1994, group 7, pp.88-97. It would appear that various cabinet-makers employed the ormolu mounts found on this commode and therefore this does not assist with an attribution. In France, this angle-mount was much used by Joseph Baumhauer (maŒtre circa 1749), for example on a bureau plat illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Fran‡ais du XVIIIe SiŠcle, Paris, 1987, p.454. In England, the same mount appears on a group of yew-wood and marquetry commodes attributed to Mayhew and Ince such as another commode from the Moller Collection (illustrated opposite this commode in R.W. Symonds, Furniture Making in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England, London, 1955, fig.166); a pair of commodes from Langford Grove and Thrumpton Hall, sold Christie's London, 3 July 1997, lot 97; a pair of smaller commodes sold from the collection of Mrs. Derek Fitzgerald, Sotheby's London, 5 July 1963, lot 156 and another pair sold by Thomas Ernest Inman, Esq., Christie's London, 29 November 1979, lot 102. Examples of its use by other makers includes the pair of commodes from Blaise Castle, Bristol, which were sold from the Messer Collection, Christie's London, 5 December 1991, lot 117. It was also used on a pair of marquetry commodes, probably made by a German immigrant in England, and sold from the collection of the late Sir Michael Sobell, Christie's London, 23 June 1994, lot 169. The most glamorous use of the model is on a pair of commodes that was supplied under the direction of James Cullen for the State Apartment at Hopetoun House, Edinburgh (see A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, fig.416). THE MOLLER COLLECTION This commode once formed part of the remarkable collections assembled by two brothers, Eric and Ralph Moller, under the guidance of Robert Wemyss Symonds. Eric Moller's years as a collector began in 1943, when he and his new wife moved to Thorncombe Park in Surrey. He restored the house and filled it with an outstanding collection of furniture and clocks, a large proportion of which was sold at Sotheby's London, 18 November 1993. His brother, Ralph, likewise sought the advice of Symonds when forming his collection at White Lodge near Newmarket. Symonds devoted the greater part of his life to the study of English furniture, establishing himself as perhaps the greatest living authority on the subject. The author of some 600 books and articles, with a personal archive of several thousand photographs, he was widely consulted by private collectors and museums. In addition to the Mollers, Symonds advised such celebrated collectors as Percival Griffiths, J.S. Sykes, Geoffrey Blackwell, Jim Joel, Samuel Messer and Lord Plender, also working in the United States, where he played a vital consultative role in the formation of the collection at Colonial Williamsburg With his background in architecture, Symonds was able to advise on the arrangement of furniture, as well as the selection of individual pieces, and took an almost curatorial approach to the collections he helped to form, carefully guiding their development and display. It is clear that he took particular pride in the Moller collection, for he used it as the basis for his 1955 classic Furniture-Making in 17th and 18th Century England in which this commode is illustrated prominently. Symonds writes: 'The circular panel on the front and the oval panels on the sides are veneered with finely figured mottled mahogany. The surrounds to the panels are veneered with strongly marked straight grained wood...But the graceful serpentine shape of the commode supplies the main interest' . Symonds's admiration for this piece is apparent as he uses it to advertise the publication of the book, a very high accolade among a treasury of masterpieces.
Circa 1740, probably originally with a middle section and with consequential alterations The broken triangular pediment with leaf tip edge above a cornice with adorsed eagles heads conjoined by a lambrequined collar and issuing scrolling acanthus, the glazed door with outset upper corners above volute-scrolled lower corners and with rosette and ribbon-wrapped surround and rope-twist inner edge, enclosing a damask silk-lined interior, above a Greek key band, the lower section with curved mahogany-lined drawer carved with ribbon-tied oak leaf garlands, rockwork and C-scroll escutcheon flanked by outset platforms above a Vitruvian-scrolled waist, the doors with rosette and ribbon-wrapped circular molded panels within foliate-scroll spandrels, enclosing three long drawers, above a leaf tip-carved plinth, electrified for lights, inscribed in blue china marker 3654 and...3 Parts, also inscribed in red paint 95.139, the door originally with mirror plate, the plinths now inset with oak panels and part of the alterations 901/4in. (229cm.) high, 463/4in. (119cm.) wide, 22in. (56cm.) deep PROVENANCE Almost certainly with Frank Partridge, London and sold to William Hesketh Lever, later 1st Viscount Leverhulme, on 30 October 1922 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, inventory no. X4148). The Art Collections of the Late Viscount Leverhulme, Anderson Galleries, New York, 9 February 1926 (the first day of the sale), lot 100, illustrated in the catalogue ($2,600). With Frank Partridge, London ( Exhibition of Art Treasures under the Auspices of The British Antique Dealers' Association, Grafton Galleries, 1928, illustrated in the catalogue, item 103, p.18, and illustration facing p.36). The Estate of the late Millicent A. Rogers, Taos, New Mexico, sold Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York 2-4 December 1954, lot 520. Anonymous sale, Sotheby's New York, 23 January 1988, lot 176 (represented as 19th century). With Ronald A. Lee, London. Sold by the above to Hotspur, London on 21 January 1994. With Hotspur, London. Sold to a private collector on 11 April 1995 who gave it to the Museum in the same year. LITERATURE G. Beard, 'Vile and Cobb, 18th Century London Furniture Makers', The Magazine Antiques, June 1990, p.1394. The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair Handbook, 1992, London, 1992, p.168 (with Ronald A. Lee). NOTES THE ORNAMENT The cabinet's architecture reflects the Roman style first introduced by the English court architect Inigo Jones (d.1652). This fashion was promoted by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington as the George II national style through publications such as Isaac Ware's Designs of Inigo Jones and Others, 1731, which included chimney-piece designs by Lord Burlington and his Rome-trained protege William Kent (d.1748), Master Carpenter of the Kings Board of Works. It reflects, in particular, the influence of Batty Langley's The City and Country Builders and Workmans Treasury of Designs, 1740 that was prefaced with 'The Five Orders of Columns' according to Andrea Palladio and included various temple-pedimented bookcases according to the Tuscan, Doric and Ionic manner. This cabinet's Tuscan pediment is opened for the display of an antique bust; while its plinth is enriched with a Grecian fretted ribbon-guilloche. Its door incorporates a tablet-cornered frame that rises from Ionic-voluted trusses that are flowered with Roman acanthus and relate to one of Langley's chimney-piece patterns (pl. LXXXV) while conjoined heads of Jupiter's sacred eagle emerge from beribboned festoons of Roman acanthus in the entablature of the cabinet; the deity's sacred oak is festooned in beribboned garlands across the ogival-sloped tablet, which rises above a plinth that is fretted with a Vitruvian wave-scroll and foliated ribbon-guilloche. The doors of the plinth-supported commode section are enriched in the Roman manner with acanthus spandrels framing wreaths of flowers in moulded ribbon-guilloches. The oak garlands, relating to those of Rome's Temple of Fortuna Virilis, are tied with large ribbons in the manner of the festive garlands featured in one of Kent's wall-elevation illustrated by Ware (plate 38). Another of Kent's temple-pedimented chimney-pieces also featured oak garlands and Vitruvian wave-scrolls (Ware, plate 34). COMPARABLE EXAMPLES This cabinet, distinguished by its open pediment, broad central section and boldly carved embellishments, relates to a group of small-scale breakfront cabinets which typically feature a central arched glazed door but vary in their carved details. The maker of this particular group of bookcases has not been identified. Within the group, this piece's bomb‚ midsection and circular panelled doors framed by foliate scrolled spandrels most closely relates to an example with the London dealers Mallett which is illustrated in L.Synge, Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p.104, fig.115. The Mallett cabinet features slender outer wings headed by scroll corbels as do other examples in the group. Other relevant comparisons within in the group includes one illustrated in J.L. Hinckley, A Directory of Queen Anne, Early Georgian and Chippendale Furniture, New York, 1971, pl.103) which shares the boldly swagged middle (although suspended from a ring and clasps rather than bound by a ribbon tie) and another sold anonymously, Christie's London, 20 April 1978, lot 99 and later Sotheby's New York, 21 November 1981, lot 245 with its laurel swags, Vitruvian scroll waist and tapering middle. The eagles joined by a coronet is a motif that also appears on a parcel-gilt cabinet formerly in the collection of Sir George Donaldson and later sold from the Estate of Marjorie Wiggin Prescott, in these Rooms, 31 January 1981, lot 357 (illustrated in P.Macquoid and R.Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1924, vol.I, p.134, fig.32). A small group of bureau-cabinets whose architectural upper cases mirror the Museum's example bears a mention, although the bases on these cabinets are very restrained by comparison. This group comprises: an example from the Percival D. Griffiths collection illustrated in situ at Sandridgebury, Hertfordshire (R.W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, 1929, fig.209); another from the collection of the late Helena Hayward, sold Sotheby's London, 4 July 1997, lot 44; and a further example sold, the Property of a Gentleman, Christie's London, 6 July 2000, lot 110. This group is now attributed to a little known cabinet-maker Charles Smith of Portugal Street. This attribution is based on Ronald Lee's identification of virtually identical examples belonging to Smith's descendants that the family purports to have been made by their ancestor. A Charles Smith association may explain this group's affinity with works attributed to Vile and Hallett. The same Charles Smith (w.1746-1767) was co-executor together with William Hallett Sr. to William Vile's estate when the latter died in 1767. Smith would almost certainly have been influenced by these two esteemed cabinet-makers, for instance, in the use of foliate clasped ovals on this cabinet which were signature traits in the designs of both Vile and Hallett. THE PROVENANCE This cabinet almost certainly formed part of the remarkable collection assembled by William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, who established the Lady Lever Art Gallery in 1922. The cabinet in the 1926 sale catalogue is particularly interesting from the point of view of its apparent modifications which must have taken place prior this date. Much has been written about the alterations carried forth by William Vile and John Cobb on carved mahogany pieces in the Royal collection. While it seems unlikely that the modifications on this cabinet would have taken place in the eighteenth century, it is reasonable to assume they were executed sometime in the nineteenth century, as supported by the later inset oak panels of a type used in the nineteenth century. It is natural to assume that Partridge bought the Leverhulme cabinet at auction in 1926 as he sold it to him in 1922 and exhibits the piece in 1928, two years later. It is quite possible that Mr. Partridge had purchased the cabinet directly from Mr. Mulliner prior to selling it to Lord Leverhulme as he cites Mulliner provenance in his 1928 exhibition catalogue. There is no evidence to support this provenance, however as the cabinet does not appear in the Christie's sale nor is it illustrated in H.A.Tipping's Country Life series on his collection published in 1924. Perhaps it was Mr. Partridge who sold the piece to Millicent Rogers, as it appears in the sale of her estate in 1954. The granddaugher of one of the original founders of Standard Oil, Henry Huttleston Rogers, she spent much of her life in Europe. She was later drawn to Taos by its landscape and history; a museum that bears her name was established in the mid-1950s and still remains open today.
