Antique Etruscan Marquetry Panel

The Osterley Commodes

There was a delay of some three years before the Childs turned their attention to the drawing room where the magnificent pair of elliptical marquetry commodes ordered for the pier walls are among the finest pieces of furniture to be preserved in the house. They are veneered with harewood, satinwood, rosewood and other woods and richly mounted with ormolu, including a tablet in the frieze consisting of winged griffins supporting a portrait medallion. There is no doubt that these commodes owe their design to Robert Adam. He intended their side panels to be ornamented with figures in oval frames and their central panels with a classical subject in a roundel set within an octagonal frame. He may have taken the latter feature from the ceiling of the great drawing-room at Syon House where G. B. Cipriani had painted figure subjects in roundels within octagonal surrounds.64 As the figures on the drawing-room commodes were to be painted it is possible that he had originally planned their execution by Cipriani. However, this did not materialise. Instead, the decoration was carried out in marquetry. Both the subjects illustrated in these marquetry panels and the way in which the commodes are constructed, has been discussed at length in Chapter S. The evidence suggests that the pieces may have been supplied by the Linnell firm but were set with marquetry obtained from George Haupt and Christopher Fürlong or from one of their compatriots working in London.