Note: The commode retains all the original ornate brass handles and escutcheons to the drawers. The ornate brass lifting handles to the sides are of later date and have been reinstated.

William Gomm is one of the lesser-known cabinet-makers of 18th century London. He started business at Peterborough Court in Smithfield in 1725 and quickly expanded; by 1736 he had moved to Newcastle House in Clerkenwell, formerly the residence of the Dukes of Newcastle.

Gomm’s eldest son Richard started to become involved in the business in 1756, and he also subscribed to Chippendale’s Director. Despite the apparently high status of the Gomm workshop within the cabinet-making profession, relatively little is known about its output.

A sketchbook with the title ‘Sundry Drawings of Cabinet Wares & c’ and dated 1761 is probably the work of William Gomm’s grandson, also William. This sketchbook, now in the collection of the Winterthur Museum, USA, contains a drawing of a clearly related commode chest which is the crucial link to our outstanding commode.

William Gomm’s documented extensive commission for the 5th Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, England, forms another link. Between 1763 and 1764 Gomm supplied furniture to the value of £819 9s. He made no fewer than five commode chests for the house, costing between 12 and 15 guineas each. At least three of these can be identified today, all bearing strong similarities to our commode.

Other known similar examples include a commode with four long drawers from Moccas Court, Herefordshire, England; another, with three short drawers above three long drawers, from the Frederick Howard Reed Collection; and a third, with twelve drawers, which was sold by Hotspur in 1964.