Y A PAIR OF GEORGE III KINGWOOD, ROSEWOOD, HAREWOOD AND MARQUETRY SERPENTINE COMMODES
ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE LANGLOIS, CIRCA 1765-1770
Ormolu mounted and with decorated throughout with panels of ribbon-tied flowers and butterflies, one commode fitted with three parquetry decorated drawers, the other with shelves, the backs and undersides with black and red washes
78.5cm high, 95cm wide, 44cm deep
Provenance:
Property from a Distinguished Private Collection
The commodes are designed in the George III `French' fashion introduced around 1760 and can be attributed to Pierre Langlois of Tottenham Court Road, one of the foremost London cabinet-makers, based on a number of stylistic attributes and a significant body of related commodes. The ormolu mounts were almost certainly supplied by Langlois' son-in-law Dominique Jean, bronze caster and gilder with whom he shared his London workshop.
Langlois has become synonymous with this particular style of furniture. A series of articles published in Connoisseur magazine spanning 1971 - 72 by Peter Thornton and William Rieder presented a comprehensive survey of related work and proposed clear stylistic and constructional grounds for attribution to Langlois ( 'Pierre Langlois, Ebéniste I - V', The Connoisseur , December 1971- May 1972)
Langlois was recorded working at 39 Tottenham Court Road, London, from 1759. His clientele included the Duke of Bedford, Duchess of Northumberland, the Earl of Coventry and the writer and aesthete Horace Walpole. He was born to French emigré parents, and probably trained in the Parisian workshop of the ébéniste , Jean-Francois Oeben. His trade card was written in both English and French, illustrates examples of furniture and objects in the French or `modern' style within an elaborate Rococo cartouche and advertises ` all Sorts of Fine Cabinets and Commodes, made & inlaid in the Politest manner with Brass & Tortoiseshell...' , the corresponding text in French is even more detailed in describing the various types of furniture produced by the workshop and lists floral marquetry and gilt-bronze mounts as a specialty.
Langlois died in 1767 but his business continued until 1773 under the management of his widow Tracey, there were two auction sales of the firm's stock in 1771 and 1772, and their son Daniel was apprenticed to Dominique Jean in 1771.
While there are few surviving bills or even contemporary references to Langlois' work, two securely documented pieces of furniture survive, a commode supplied to the Duke of Bedford for Woburn (1760) and a commode for the Earl of Coventry, Croome Court (1764), the latter now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (59.127). A commode supplied to Caroline, Lady Holland for Holland House, London, was almost certainly from Langlois, and displays the distinctive floral marquetry associated with him (Thornton & Reider, part 3, p. 182, figs. 14 and 15). Lady Holland wrote in correspondence with her younger sisters Emily, Louisa and Sarah ` I hear she (Louisa) likes l'Anglay's inlaid things very much and I should wish to send her something that might suit some of their rooms, whether commode table, bureau or coins (corner cupboards)'.
Near identical angle mounts and sabot feet featured on a commode with marble top and decorated with inset pietra-dura landscape panels sold Christie's, London, 8 July 1999, lot 110 (£95,000 including premium) and on a commode sold by the London furniture dealers Apter Fredericks, Christie's, London, 19 January 2021, lot 35 (£25,000 including premium). Of slightly different character to the commodes offered here, both can be associated with Langlois firm. Interestingly the particular pattern of angle mount was adopted by the Marlborough cabinet-maker Henry Hill for a commode he supplied to the Duke of Somerset (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes , London, 1994, no.4, fig. 55).
Among other closely related commodes are:
-A pair of satine, Indian rosewood, Kingwood and floral marquetry commodes, each with doors and enclosing drawers, almost certainly commissioned by William Craven, 6 th Baron Craven (d. 1791) for Combe Abbey, Hampstead Marshall or Ashdown House, later at Benham Park, and by descent until sold by order of the Executors of the 6 th Earl of Craven, Sotheby's, London, 8 October 1965, lot 140, sold again Sotheby's, London, 30 November 2001, lot 96, (£443,500 incl. BP).
-Another almost identical pair in a UK private collection.
-A single commode from Bolney Lodge, West Sussex, Sold Toovey's, West Sussex, 20 September 2006, lot 66 (£160,0000 excl. BP)
-A pair of padouk and rosewood commodes, each with a drawer above doors and enclosing shelves, lacking floral marquetry but with book-matched veneers, formerly in the collection of Lady Samuel of Wych Cross, sold Sotheby's, London, 18 November 2008, lot 94