The rectangular top with a gadrooned edge above a wide acanthus and gadroon carved frieze over two short and two long cockbeaded drawers flanked by deeply carved acanthus forecorners, raised on finely carved scrolled French feet.

Note:
The present lot is nearly identical to a design for a 'French Commode Table' appearing in Thomas Chippendale's 1754 'Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director', pl. XLIII. Its robust bombe form and exaggerated scrolled feet borrow heavily from popular French rococo design. Chippendale provided several options for the execution of the overall design, and the present commode incorporates some elements from other designs in the Chippendale canon, most notably the addition of the wide foliate carved frieze below the gadrooned edge of the top. This element is illustrated, on a much smaller scale, on a design for a tea chest (pl. CXXIX). The present commode also differs from the Chippendale design the replacement of a single long top drawer for a pair of short drawers and a simplified straight apron rather than the more pronounced arched and carved apron present in the Chippendale design. Firms like Wright and Elwick of Wakefield were known to execute fairly faithful pieces based on Chippendale's designs, with some modest adjustments, where most other cabinet makers would only borrow certain elements. For related commodes, see the Raynham commodes, one in the collection of the Philadelephia Museum of Art, (72-50-10), the other French & Company, sold Christie's, New York, November 24, 1998, lot 60; and a commode attributed to Wright and Elwick, sold Christie's, New York, October 17, 2008, lot 100.