The moulded serpentine cross-banded top with lightly rounded back edge, inlaid with a scroll centred by a patera and intersected by a quill, above two graduated drawers inlaid sans traverse with a rectangle centred by a patera above a scrolling device flanked by husk garlands hung on roundels, the handles and sides centred by inlaid paterae, on tapering square legs terminating in spade feet
36 in. (91 cm.) high; 44¹⁄₂ in. (113 cm.) wide; 19¹⁄₂ in. (49 cm.) deep

Possibly commissioned for the 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1794) perhaps for Luton Park, Bedfordshire or 75 South Audley Street.
Possibly by descent to his granddaughter Lady Frances Stuart (d. 1859), daughter of 1st Marquess of Bute by his second wife Frances, daughter of Thomas Coutts, who married the 2nd Earl of Harrowby in 1823.
By descent in the Harrowby family to the Hon. Edward Alan Dudley Ryder (1869-1949), son of the 5th Earl of Harrowby,
Thence by descent.

Comparative Literature:
Hugh Roberts and Charles Cator, Industry and Ingenuity, The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew, London, 2022.

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Lot Essay

With its sophisticated marquetry, this commode relates to the work of the London partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew and in particular to a possible commission by the third Earl of Bute for Luton Park, Bedfordshire or his London home at 75 South Audley Street.

The pair to this commode was sold The Leverhulme Collection, Thornton Manor, Sotheby's, 26 June 2001, lot 120 and both relate to a pair of harewood commodes at Mount Stuart which have similar curved backs, marquetry husk swags looped through paterae and the same ring handles backed by marquetry paterae (illustrated H. Roberts, C. Cator Industry and Ingenuity, The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew, London, 2022). Like the present lot, the Mount Stuart commodes are unusually narrow and their backs indicate that they were originally intended to sit within a niche.

The splendour of Lord Bute's project at Luton Park was well-known and a comment in 1774 by his cousin, Lady Mary Coke that she had never seen a house 'so fully furnished' indicates the quality and quantity of the 'magnificent' furniture within (J. A. Home The Letters and Journals of Lady Mary Coke, facsimile edition (Bath, 1970), pp.390-1).