A Régence Gilt-Bronze Mounted Lacquer Commode en Cabinet, circa 1725

The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York 2000

The present commode belongs to a rare group of early eighteenth-century French furniture incorporating elements from imported Asian lacquer case furniture. During the seventeenth century, Chinese and Japanese cabinets had become highly fashionable in European interiors, typically displayed intact on elaborate carved giltwood stands. By the early eighteenth century, however, Parisian craftsmen increasingly dismantled these objects and adapted their lacquered components for incorporation into newly constructed furniture. In the present example, the numerous drawers were reconfigured within the commode, while lacquer panels originally lining the cabinet's interior were repurposed for the sides. These exotic lacquer surfaces, enriched with gilt-bronze mounts, became an important feature of the luxurious aesthetic associated with Régence and early Louis XV furniture.