COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, Dictionary of English Furniture, 1954, p.117, fig. 18.

This commode is one of the few attributed to Pierre Langlois in Peter Thornton and William Rieder’s landmark series of articles on Langlois and his œuvre (P. Thornton and W. Rieder, op. cit., p. 264, fig. 16). Thornton and Rieder relate the present commode to several others likely produced by Langlois during his later career, most closely one at West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, a smaller pair at West Wycombe, a pair formerly in the collection of Sam Eckman Jr., and one sold Sotheby’s, New York, 7 April 2004, lot 193 ($534,400 inc. premium), later with Mallett. These six commodes display an increasing use of neo-classical motifs, such as the marquetry urns which decorate the doors, a softening of the pronounced bombé of his earlier commodes, and all but the smaller pair at West Wycombe and the Sam Eckman commode share almost identical, finely chased gilt brass mounts. The smaller pair at West Wycombe are also decorated with a beribboned border, identical to those on the doors and top of the present commode.

This commode also relates to an earlier, much-celebrated commode produced by Langlois for the Early of Coventry at Croome Court (1764), now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (59.127). Both commodes are decorated with parquetry borders of roundels and elongated rectangles. On the Croome commode these surround the top; here they are on either side of the doors. The Croome commode is one of only two documented pieces of furniture by Langlois to survive, the other a commode produced for the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey (1760). The similarity of this commode to the documented one at Croome strengthens an attribution to Langlois. For a commode almost identical to the Croome commode, see that sold Sotheby's, London, 12 November 2025, lot 39.