This superb commode was probably conceived en suite with a lavish Rococo boiserie for the main rooms on the piano nobile of a Venetian palazzo. Such Italian Rococo furniture is characteristically bolder in its lines and more emphatic in its decoration than its French counterpart. This curvilinear form, set on short cabriole legs is typical of commodes from the mid-1700s that were supplied to the wealthiest of Venetian patrons. Fully gilded furniture as in the present example is without doubt the most extravagant ornamentation and the rarest with only a handful of examples identified in museums and collections today.

The present commode is comparable to a pair in the Tapestry Room at Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, which is part of a collection of furniture from the Balbi Valier Palace at Santa Maria Formosa (G. Mariacher, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice, 1967, p. 15). The Ca'Rezzonico collection also contains a related small giltwood bombé corner cupboard or comodino. Another similar two-drawer gilded commode was recorded in 1981 in a private Roman collection while a further comparable commode was in the collection of Conte L. Dona dale Rose (S. Colombo, L'Arte del Legno e del Mobile in Italia, Bramante, 1981, p. 450, fig. 450; G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Veneziano del '700, Milan, 1927). Another beautiful gilded Venetian commode circa 1745-50 similar to the present example is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

The gilding visible today appears to be the only and original decoration, with the gold leaf having been laid onto a yellow/orange clay sealing the gesso beneath.

A Venetian giltwood corner cabinet, circa 1730, sold Sotheby's London, 'The Italian Furniture, from the Estate of the late Giuseppe Rossi, Volume I', lot 92 (£109,300 including premium). A Venetian parcel-gilt and polychrome decorated commode, mid-18th century, sold Christie's London, 9 December 2010, lot 289 (£493,250 including premium), while a further related giltwood commode, circa 1760, sold Christie's New York, 22 May 2002, lot 354 ($41,825 including premium).