An Early 18thC Dutch Walnut Serpentine Commode c.1730-40

Origin: Dutch
Period: Early 18thC
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1730-40
Width: 37”
Height: 34”
Depth: 19.5” (all at extremities)

The shaped walnut carcass of superb generous baroque bombe type form, having a moulded top above an arrangement of four long serpentine graduated drawers to shaped ends, with panelled sides each with large brass carrying handles, the frontage with brass drop handles and rococo escutcheons, to a shaped moulded base raised on later(?) bun feet and surviving from the second quarter of eighteenth century Netherlands.

The heavy chest shows some rather attractive wear and tear with scuffing commensurate with its age, the drawers all running smoothly and the carcass structurally sound. Timeworn, unrestored, yet structurally sound and wonderfully cosmetically untouched. There are losses to the veneer, historic marks, warp and shrinkage consistent with age as photographed. It remains untouched and deeply burnished from generations of use with the surfaces now a collage of oxidised walnut veneers, shrinkage lines and time-softened edges. 

A piece that feels lifted straight from a shuttered manor bedroom; quiet, utilitarian, charismatic, and wearing its three centuries with total candour.