The tapering pilasters and idiosyncratic feet of these very fine cabinets are features found on the pair of rosewood chiffoniers and commode designed by Henry Holland for Mrs Whitbread’s room at Southill, Bedfordshire, which were almost certainly ordered from Marsh & Tatham, during the refurbishment of the house between 1796 and 1802.¹ 

The interiors and furniture of the room and adjoining boudoir show Holland’s style ‘at its most French and most refined’, and are the most complete extant example of Holland’s flair. Marsh & Tatham were part of a group of craftsmen who worked with Holland and marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre at Southill as well as for the Prince of Wales at Carlton House.²

Another closely related cabinet almost certainly supplied by the same firm to George Osborne, 6^th Duke of Leeds, for Hornby Castle, Yorkshire, sold Christie’s, London, 13 November 2014, lot 198 (GBP 60,000). A pair of the same model, formerly with Jeremy Ltd., sold Christie’s New York, 9 April 2019 (USD 56,250).

¹ F. J. B. Watson, ‘The Furniture and Decoration’, Southill (London, 1951), figs. 35-36

² G. Beard & C. Gilbert (eds.), Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840 (Leeds, 1986), pp. 623-4