By the mid-18th century, the English taste for serpentine or bombé form commodes in the ‘French manner’ as seen in the present lot was full-fledged, having been introduced to London by French cabinetmaker Pierre Langlois (d.1767) and widely popularized by Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director (1754). John Cobb (d. 1785) was one of the most skilled practitioners in this type of cabinet-making, known for producing a number of bombé form commodes, often similarly raised on cabriole legs ending in sabots. The work of Cobb and the other members of his powerful ‘St. Martin's Lane Syndicate' formed in 1753, which included William Vile (d.1767) and William Hallett (d.1781), is characterized by confident lines, carefully selected, high-quality timber and beautifully detailed carving as exemplified by the present lot.

This commode belongs to a group of similar commodes with the same serpentine form and unique brass ribbon-tied paterae and husk-festoon handles. A nearly identical commode, with differences only to the corner mounts and sabots, was featured on the cover and illustrated in the 2017 Ronald Phillips: Fine Antique English Furniture catalogue (pp. 72-73, no. 30). Either the same commode as the Ronald Phillips example, or another from this group with all identical mounts to the Ronald Phillips example, is depicted in a rare photograph of the Mallett Showrooms at the Octagon Chapel, Bath, circa 1900 (see image 10). A further very similar commode with identical handles on the drawers and sides but lacking corner mounts and sabots was with Trevor Antiques, Brighton and exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in the C.I.N.O.A International Art Treasures Exhibition, 2 March-29 April 1962, no. 81. A fourth example formerly in the Norman Adams Collection and now reputedly in a private Sao Paulo collection shares the same unusual drawer handles (ill. in C. Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century Furniture: The Norman Adams Collection, pp. 388-389, pl.37). Finally, Lucy Wood describes another example of a “serpentine mahogany commode with shaped ends and four drawers in front, two long and two short… with a border of rosewood; ormolu drop handles formed as husk festoons and ribands; ormolu corner mounts and heavy handles at ends” in her Catalogue of Commodes (p.332), recorded as bought from Moss Harris & Sons, 17 December 1919, and as Property of the 3rd Viscount Leverhulme.