Dressing chest
manner of William & Richard Gomm
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1765
Materials
Mahogany, oak, deal, gilt brass, glass, baize, iron
Measurements
83.5 x 128 x 63.5 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 871399
Summary
A mahogany serpentine dressing chest, or commode, English, circa 1765 (the handles and escutcheons later), in the manner of William & Richard Gomm (c. 1725-94). The solid mahogany top with moulded edge, and with solid mahogany sides. Fitted with four drawers, the uppermost above a bead moulding which continues along the sides, and fitted for a toiletter, with divisions forming compartments, some with lids with small brass loop handles, and some lined with baize, all around a central mirror plate within a mahogany surround and on an easel support, all beneath a baize-lined slide. With three graduated long and cockbeaded drawers below. All fitted with later Rococo and Chinoiserie backplates and escutcheons, and with well-cut figured veneers. The front corners angled and topped by scroll-tipped acanthus leaves above a truss carved with acanthus, reeding and a reserve with a notch-carved edge. With base moulding and raised on 'panelled' ogee bracket feet, the angles carved with a leaf. Fitted with large wood and iron castors. The backboards and boards beneath the drawers of deal. The uppermost drawer fitted with a lock of three barrels
Full description
This fine dressing chest relates to a design by William Gomm of 1761 in the Henry Francis Du Pont Museum, Winterthur. The design is for a serpentine chest with the same 'eared' top, carved trusses to the front angles and 'panelled' feet. A dressing chest with the same features, as well as an applied moulding or bead to the carcass separating the first and second drawers, was sold by Christie's, 19 January 2021, Lot 27. William, and subsequently his son, Richard, were based at Newcastle Close in Clerkenwell, where - famously - William worked with the celebrated German cabinet-maker Abraham Roentgen (1711-93). The Gomms supplied furniture for Richard Hoare of Barn Elms, as well as the 5th Lord Leigh for Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire. In 1763, George William Fairfax bought £440 worth of furniture from Gomm for his home in Virginia, America. When this was sold at auction in 1774, the leading buyer was George Washington, who purchased some of the furniture for his home at Mount Vernon.
Provenance
Accepted in part payment of death duties by HM Treasury from the executors of Edmund Robert Parker, 4th Earl of Morley (1877 - 1951) and transferred to the National Trust in 1957.
Makers and roles
manner of William & Richard Gomm, creator
References
L. Boynton, 'William and Richard Gomm', in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 122, No. 927 (June, 1980),, pp. 395-402