This is one of the most magnificent English examples of the commode form (a low chest of drawers or cupboard, intended more for show than use). The vivacious serpentine profile – with elevations echoing the plan view – is matched in the treatment of the lacquered brass mounts and especially in the virtuoso open grilles in the doors. The treatment of the grilles reflects the fashion for brass inlay in eighteenth-century British furniture, but here the 'inlay' is shown without a wood support.
The commode is one of a pair, the other now at Temple Newsam House outside Leeds. They were probably made for George Grenville (1712-1770), who served George III as Prime Minister in 1763–65 – about the time that these commodes were made. A closely comparable commode at Buckingham Palace is thought to have been made by William Vile (ca. 1700–1767), the royal cabinet-maker in this period. Through his position at Court Grenville could well have encountered Vile and commissioned him to make these pieces.