ATTRIBUTED TO WRIGHT AND ELWICK, CIRCA 1765

This pair of pier commodes can be ingeniously arranged back-to-back to form a large library desk for the middle of a room, arguably making this configuration an early form of metamorphic furniture. The fashion for the back-to-back library desk formed from two commodes or buroe dressing tables originated in the second quarter of the 18th century, and in Chippendale’s words: ‘both sides were made useful’ (R.W. Symonds, ‘Back-to-back Writing-tables’, Country Life, 13 September 1956, pp. 533-534). A mid-18th century back-to-back library desk is at Althorp, Northampton, the seat of the Spencer family (H. Avray Tipping, ‘Furniture at Althorp – I’, Country Life, 11 June 1921, pp. 722-723, fig. 2). A large back-to-back library desk with foliate volute-carved angles, serpentine breakfront ends and pierced trellis-work brackets supporting the folding top, described as 'Chippendale, XVIII Century', was formerly in the collection of Wililam Randolph Hearst, later sold from the collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, 30 April 1960, lot 268. A plainer example is at Scone Castle, Perth (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, fig. 256). It is rare to find two commodes of the Julians Park model together, as many have become separated.

The commodes are probably inspired by Chippendale’s design for a ‘French Commode Table’, as published in the third edition of the Director (1762), plate LXIX, which similarly features a breakfront, although serpentine rather than bow-front, with a set of four drawers in the middle flanked by doors with carved oval medallions. Chippendale states: ‘The Ornaments should be carved very light’. The drawers projecting between panelled cupboards with a low relief medallion also feature on a design for a ‘Desk and Bookcase’, plate CVIII. The low relief oval medallion is found on Chippendale’s designs for ‘Library Tables’ as well, see plates LXXXIII, LXXXIV.

The commodes/back-to-back library desk offered here are possibly executed by Richard Wright and Edward Elwick (1745-71) of Wakefield, the ‘pre-eminent firm of cabinet-makers and upholsterers in Yorkshire during the second half of the eighteenth century’ (C. Gilbert, ‘Wright and Elwick of Wakefield, 1748-1824; A Study of Provincial Patronage’, Furniture History, 1976, p. 34). Both Wright and Elwick subscribed separately to Chippendale’s 1754 Director, and in 1767, Chippendale disparagingly alluded to ‘the Ingenious Mr Elwick’ in a letter dated 26 August to his patron Sir Rowland Winn suggesting Elwick was active at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, prior to his arrival. Notably, much of the furniture attributed to Wright and Elwick adheres to designs from Chippendale’s Director (1754, 1755 and 1762).

The attribution of the commodes/back-to-back library desk to Wright and Elwick is principally based on one of the firm’s most important commissions at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, for the Marquess of Rockingham. A payment in 1748 and 49 to the firm by Lord Rockingham of a bill for furniture, specialist upholstery work and ‘India’ paper survives and there are further payments in the Steward’s Accounts at Sheffield Archives, which date from the early 1750s through to 1767; the latter discovered at the time of the Christie’s ‘Wentworth’ sale held on the 8 July 1998. In fact, Wright and Elwick were still employed at Wentworth in 1784 when they received payment for a giltwood table frame for a drawing room pier (https://bifmo.history.ac.uk/entry/wright-richard-elwick-edward-1745-71. Accessed 17 April 2021). The Wentworth sale comprised significant furniture attributed to or possibly by Wright and Elwick, specifically lots 33-36, 62-65, 67, 69-70. Lot 69 in the Wentworth sale is closely related to the present commodes, and likewise its form is derived from plate LXIX in the 1762 Director (sold £29,900 inc. premium). The attribution of the Wentworth lots was strengthened by the presence at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, of two corresponding pieces of furniture that could be linked to payments to Wright and Elwick; these were a dressing-commode closely related to lot 69 in the Wentworth sale, illustrated in P. Macquoid, A History of English Furniture: The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, p. 153, fig. 135, and a cabinet, almost identical to the Wentworth kneehole dressing-cabinet, lot 70 in the Wentworth sale.

A variation of lot 69 in the Wentworth sale but with plinths is closer still to the pair of commodes offered here (a pair sold Christie’s (Spencer House), 15 July 1948, lot 110; a single commode sold Christie’s, London, 23 November 2006, lot 10, £48,000 inc. premium). Furthermore the fretwork, as illustrated when the library back-to-back desk is set up, is an important feature of ‘The Marchioness of Rockingham’s Cabinet’, lot 35 in the Wentworth sale.

A mahogany serpentine commode after the same Chippendale design LXIX, and possibly supplied to Sir John Ramsden (d. 1769) of Byram Hall, Yorkshire, was tentatively attributed to Wright & Elwick based on the Wentworth furniture and the presence of John Carr of York at Byram and his ‘patronage’ of Wright & Elwick (sold Christie’s, London, 14 May 2003, lot 70). Christopher Gilbert described the role that Carr played in pointing his patron John Spencer of Cannon Hall towards Wright and Elwick in 1768. Spencer's diary records Carr taking him around ‘Cobbs, Chippendale and several others of the most eminent Cabinet-Makers to consider of proper Furniture for my drawing Room’. Possibly put off by the potential cost of these eminent London makers, Spencer was steered by Carr towards Elwick (Gilbert, 'Wright and Elwick of Wakefield’, p. 36).

Another fustic, ebony and ebonised commode of similar configuration attributed to Wright and Elwick, was almost certainly supplied to Charles, (d. 1782), 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, for Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire; it was sold Christie's London (Spencer House), 15 July 1948, lot 111, and sold again most recently at Christie’s, London, 6 July 2000, lot 139 (£685,750 inc. premium).