A fine pair of Swedish gilt-bronze-mounted marble topped walnut, fruitwood, sycamore, birch and marquetry commodes by Carl Lindborg Gustavian, late 18th century

each with a rectangular moulded Swedish grey kalsten marble top, with canted corners above a frieze drawer with fruit filled cornocopiae, the bottom edge with a gilt-metal band of laurel leaves, above two long drawers inlaid with a wicker basket of fruit, vines and grapes on a plinth, the sides with a neoclassical urn within strapwork borders, on square tapering legs headed by guttae, the underside of the top signed  with the owner's initials `LC' in red ink

Comparative Literature:
Torsten Sylven, Marstarnas Möbler, Stockholm, 1996, p. 224, illustrates a virtually identical commode by the same maker, with a basket of fruit inlaid on the drawers.

Carl Linborg:

He was born on 26th December 1739 and died on 31st August 1815. He is recorded as having been the apprentice of Friedrich Krauss in 1776. His Gustavian commodes have beautifully composed intarsia-decoration and he frequently used a very distinct rosette marquetry pattern, often centered by a basket of flowers in the middle drawer as on the present pair of commodes.