Y A GEORGE III HAREWOOD, SATINWOOD AND MARQUETRY BOWFRONT COMMODEATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM MOORE CIRCA 1780With a frieze drawer above the central cupboard door, bearing a retail label for 'Norman Adams Ltd' in the drawer87cm high, 114cm wide, 50cm deepProvenance: Norman Adams Ltd, 8-10 Hand Road, London, SW3 For a comparable commode by William Moore see Sotheby's, New York, Important English Furniture, 12th October 2007, Lot 79 ($241,000). For a closely related pair of commodes, see also Christie's, The English Collector, 19th November 2015, Lot 600(£242,500). As The Knight of Glin and James Peill remark in Irish Furniture, Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 162-166, 'By far the most important cabinet-maker' (in Ireland) 'who reflected the new taste for neo-classicism and the Adam style was William Moore'.Possibly the son of William Moore a cabinet maker recorded at Inns Quay and Charles Street, who died in 1759, he appears to have attended the School of Landscape and Ornament Drawing at the Dublin Society of Drawing Schools in 1768, after which he was employed in the workshop of John Mayhew and William Ince before returning to Ireland at some time before December 1777. The firm of Mayhew and Ince is recorded in London between 1758 and 1804 and, although their actual work is not well documented, they were 'the most significant......of the major London cabinet makers of the 18th century' (Beard & Gilbert, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pp. 589-597) . In 1782 he placed an advertisement in Faulkener's, Dublin Journal, addressed 'To the Nobility and Gentry' informing 'those that may want inlaid work [that]he has brought the manufacture of such perfection to be able to sell for almost one half its original prices; as the greatest demand is for pier Tables, he has just finished in the newest taste a great variety of patterns, sizes and prices... card tables of new construction... also small pier tables with every article in the inlaid way'. In a very similar advertisement in the Dublin Evening Post he also mentions 'his long experience at Messrs. Mayhew and Ince'.The inlaid work found on the present commode is closely related to a number of other commodes attributed to Moore by The Knight of Glin and James Peill (op. cit.) including one in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (fig. 231), and another formerly in the collection of Lady Binning (fig. 222). Another related example supplied by Moore to the Duchess of Manchester is also in the collection of the V&A (W.43-1949). During the 18th century a commode was a type of low cabinet or chest of drawers, used in grand dressing rooms and drawing rooms. It was often intended more for display than for any practical function. This semi-circular type was made fashioanble in the 1770's and 1780's by the neoclassical architect Robert Adam who often used such geometric shapes in his designs.
Y A GEORGE III HAREWOOD, SATINWOOD AND MARQUETRY BOWFRONT COMMODEATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM MOORE CIRCA 1780With a frieze drawer above the central cupboard door, bearing a retail label for 'Norman Adams Ltd' in the drawer87cm high, 114cm wide, 50cm deepProvenance: Norman Adams Ltd, 8-10 Hand Road, London, SW3 For a comparable commode by William Moore see Sotheby's, New York, Important English Furniture, 12th October 2007, Lot 79 ($241,000). For a closely related pair of commodes, see also Christie's, The English Collector, 19th November 2015, Lot 600(£242,500). As The Knight of Glin and James Peill remark in Irish Furniture, Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 162-166, 'By far the most important cabinet-maker' (in Ireland) 'who reflected the new taste for neo-classicism and the Adam style was William Moore'.Possibly the son of William Moore a cabinet maker recorded at Inns Quay and Charles Street, who died in 1759, he appears to have attended the School of Landscape and Ornament Drawing at the Dublin Society of Drawing Schools in 1768, after which he was employed in the workshop of John Mayhew and William Ince before returning to Ireland at some time before December 1777. The firm of Mayhew and Ince is recorded in London between 1758 and 1804 and, although their actual work is not well documented, they were 'the most significant......of the major London cabinet makers of the 18th century' (Beard & Gilbert, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pp. 589-597) . In 1782 he placed an advertisement in Faulkener's, Dublin Journal, addressed 'To the Nobility and Gentry' informing 'those that may want inlaid work [that]he has brought the manufacture of such perfection to be able to sell for almost one half its original prices; as the greatest demand is for pier Tables, he has just finished in the newest taste a great variety of patterns, sizes and prices... card tables of new construction... also small pier tables with every article in the inlaid way'. In a very similar advertisement in the Dublin Evening Post he also mentions 'his long experience at Messrs. Mayhew and Ince'.The inlaid work found on the present commode is closely related to a number of other commodes attributed to Moore by The Knight of Glin and James Peill (op. cit.) including one in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (fig. 231), and another formerly in the collection of Lady Binning (fig. 222). Another related example supplied by Moore to the Duchess of Manchester is also in the collection of the V&A (W.43-1949). During the 18th century a commode was a type of low cabinet or chest of drawers, used in grand dressing rooms and drawing rooms. It was often intended more for display than for any practical function. This semi-circular type was made fashioanble in the 1770's and 1780's by the neoclassical architect Robert Adam who often used such geometric shapes in his designs.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
