By repute the Earls of Craven at Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire
Partridge Fine Arts, 1986
Literature
Partridge, Recent Acquisitions 1986, no. 20
G. Beard and C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 (London: 1986), pp. 181-4
Publications
L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes (London: 1994), p. 52, fig. 8 (illustrated)
A George III mahogany ormolu-mounted serpentine commode attributed to John Cobb, the moulded edge top above two short and two long graduated draws flanked by female term-mounted keeled stiles and standing on ormolu cloven-hoofed splayed bracket feet.
This commode, completed in the pittoresque or French manner in circa 1765, is attributed to the royal cabinet-maker John Cobb. It is one of a group of closely-related commodes attributed to Cobb and discussed by Lucy Wood in her Catalogue of Commodes, where the present chest is illustrated (see image below).
The commodes in the group relate closely. All are characterised by serpentine form, high quality mahogany timbers and rich Régence-pattern ormolu mounts and compare in general conception with the documented Cobb commission anchoring the group, the single mahogany and ormolu-mounted serpentine commode supplied to James West at Alscot Park in 1766.
The present example bears close relation to Cobb commodes at Burghley House, Blickling Hall, Woburn Abbey and the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Its ormolu masks are identical to those on these commodes, which are all ornamented in the same manner with rocaille collars, C-scrolls, acanthus leaves, gadrooning, strapwork, husks and lapped lambrequins. All the commodes also feature fine flame-figured and matched mahogany veneers and serpentine form, implying a common maker.
The present commode most resembles examples in the group at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Blickling and in the H. Percy Dean Collection which in addition to the same female mask stile mounts likewise feature splayed bracket feet mounted with cloven hooves, as opposed to acanthus-embellished square bracket feet, present on the aforementioned Burghley, Blickling, Woburn and Lever examples. The use of hooves in place of leaves indicates a slightly later Rococo design, according with the handles and escutcheons on the present commode and the Dean example which are pierced, again indicating an updated, more refined Rococo design.
Renowned for his designs in the French taste, Cobb alongside his contemporary and St. Martin’s Lane neighbour T. Chippendale, led the synthesis of French and English styles so popular in England during the 1750s and 60s.
Apprenticed in 1729 in Norwich, Cobb (c.1715-78) first appears in the London Directory in 1750 shortly before he entered partnership with William Vile in 1751. Vile and Cobb established a highly successful business and were, after Chippendale, the most accomplished cabinet-makers of the mid-Georgian period. Their work is characterised by confident lines and well-chosen, high-quality timbers. They were appointed cabinet-makers to George III in 1761 and together supplied a series of celebrated pieces to Kensington Palace, St. James’s Palace and the Queen's House, now Buckingham Palace.
Cobb himself was quite a character. With a ‘singularly haughty character’, he was described as ‘one of the proudest men in England’. J. T. Smith in Nollekens and his Times (1829) recorded how Cobb ‘in full dress of the most superb and costly kind, strutted through his workshops giving orders to his men’. Smith also relates George III’s placing Cobb in second place through annoyance at his pomposity and imperious delegation of duties to his man Jenkins.
Quite in keeping with his character, in 1772 Cobb was implicated with others, including James Cullen, in the smuggling of furniture from France by the use of the diplomatic bag of the Venetian Resident, Baron Berlindis and the Neapolitan Minister, Count Pignatelli, thereby intending to evade import duty.
Charismatic, then, Cobb also had the distinction of being the son-in-law of the titanic figure of early eighteenth-century walnut and japanned furniture, Giles Grendey. On 31st March 1755 he had married Sukey Grendey, Giles’ fourth daughter. At her death he was remarried to Mary Babel, the widow of Pierre (Peter) Babel, a papier mâché frame maker, on 24th February 1772, by license at St. Paul’s Covent Garden, Cobb then described as a cabinet maker and salon decorator. Mary outlived him and married for a third time.
With its strong French design and date, this commode (in addition to others in the group) is the work of John Cobb alone, following his continuing in the trade for thirteen years after the retirement of his partner Vile in 1764. During this period, Cobb supplied furniture to many aristocratic clients across the country, including the 6th Earl of Coventry at Croome Court, his largest commission.