A very fine mid 18th-century ormolu-mounted Chinese black lacquer and japanned serpentine commode, decorated overall with exotic birds within an oriental landscape with flowers and butterflies, the shaped top with gadrooned ormolu band above two doors enclosing three similarly decorated lacquer drawers with gild metal handles, the keeled angles headed by pierced foliate and floral mounts, on splayed legs with pierced foliate sabots with a shaped apron.

Lacquer was one of the richest materials that could be used in the construction of commodes from the mid 18th century onwards, and it seems to have been first used in this manner by the great French ebenists. The use of lacquer spread to England in the 1760’s. Only the larger and most skilled cabinet shops, such as Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) and Pierre Langlois (fl. c. 1759-1781)’, seemed to have used lacquer owing to the prohibitive expense and technical difficulty of reworking the imported panels; examples of such work were supplied to Harewood House in Yorkshire,  Strawberry Hill, Twickenham and Powys Castle, Wales.

The closest comparison to this beautiful commode is a pair formerly in the collection of the HRH The Duke of Kent. The pair are of a similar, low-slung form, with Chinese lacquer panels and ormolu mounts, and with stylistically similar  japanned areas. Other comparable pieces include a set of four commodes which were at Uppark, West Sussex, two of which were sold at Christie's; the other two remain at Uppark. The form of the feet and their mounts is very similar to that on this commode, but the ornament of the shoulders is formed from applied carved giltwood, in imitation of ormolu, rather than actual gilt bronze.  A commode in the Victoria and Albert Museum has apparently identical mounts, and the outline with its sharply projecting corners is the same; the interior is also fitted with drawers.