Mid-19th Century French Kingwood Commode

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Mid-19th Century French Kingwood Commode

About the Item

A good mid-19th century French kingwood and rosewood bombe commode retaining it's original handles and sabots with its original very well figured marble top. Bombe sides which are quartered. Originally, in French furniture, a commode introduced circa 1700 meant a low cabinet, or chest of drawers at the height of the dado rail (à hauteur d'appui). A commode, made by a cabinet-maker and applied with gilt bronze mounts, was a piece of veneered case furniture much wider than it was high, raised on high or low legs and with (commode à vantaux) or without enclosing drawers. The piece of furniture would be provided with a marble slab top selected to match the marble of the chimneypiece. A commode occupied a prominent position in the room for which it was intended: it stood against the pier between the windows, in which case it would often be surmounted by a mirror glass, or a pair of identical commodes would flank the chimneypiece or occupy the centre of each end wall. Bombé commodes, with surfaces shaped in three dimensions were a feature of the Rococo style called "Louis Quinze". Rectilinear neoclassical or "Louis Seize" commodes might have such deep drawers or doors that the feet were en toupie—in the tapering turned shape of a child's spinning top. Both Rococo and neoclassical commodes might have cabinets flanking the main section, in which case such a piece was a commode à encoignures, pairs of encoignures or corner-cabinets might also be designed to complement a commode and Stand in the flanking corners of a room. If a commode had open shelves flanking the main section it was a commode à l'anglaise. Before the mid-18th century the commode had become such a necessary commodity that it might be made in menuiserie, of solid painted oak, or walnut or fruitwoods, with carved decoration, typical of French Provincial furniture. In the English-speaking world, commode passed into London cabinet-makers' parlance by the mid-18th century, to describe chests of drawers with gracefully curved fronts, and sometimes with shaped sides as well, perceived as being in the "French" taste. Thomas Chippendale employed the term "French Commode Tables" to describe designs in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Director (1753), and Ince and Mayhew illustrated a "Commode Chest of drawers", plate xliii, in their Universal System of Household Furniture, 1759–1762. John Gloag notes that commode expanded to describe any piece of furniture with a serpentine front, such as a dressing table, or even a chair seat.

Dimensions:
Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 50 in (127 cm)Depth: 24 in (60.96 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Kingwood
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1870
Condition:
Seller Location:
Peterborough, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 67021stDibs: LU103281209632