The brilliant British cabinetmaker Pierre Langlois (1718-1767) was born in London in 1718 to Daniel and Jeanne l'Anglois. The l'Anglois were part of the French Huguenot community in London. According to his trade card, his workshop was located on the Tottenham Court Road, near Windmill Street and he boasted of making ‘all Sorts of Fine Cabinets and Commodes,...’ Nothing is known of Pierre until 1759, when a payment of £2.20 was made for ‘A japan’d fire screen’ for John, 4th duke of Bedford, Woburn Abbey. Several other significant pieces were supplied for the duke of Bedford, including at least three ‘commode tables’, one made in 1760 (£78) and ‘two commode tables of inlaid wood £14’ in 1767.  Another splendid commode, which he made for George, 6th earl of Coventry for Croome Court, and which is today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, was described in his invoice in French as ‘une Grande Commode Pour Mettre des Abit inscruté de fleur du bois Naturelle des hinde et ornée de bronze Dorée du prix de £55’. 

He supplied furniture to Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, where he made an inlaid writing box recorded in the Breakfast Room there in 1774 and a pair of superb lacquer commodes for the Gallery (San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, 1985.58a-b). Walpole left a handwritten note referring to the commission: “The two commodes & 4 coins, cost, £125.0.0, without the Japan which was my own, but the bending it into the present forms by Langlois a Frenchman, was very expensive.”

The foregoing commodes are of the grandest type of commodes made by Langlois. The most direct comparable commission from Langlois which supports a firm attribution of this commode to Pierre Langlois is the pair now at Sherborne Castle, Dorset. No specified invoice survives, but on 21 May 1762, Peter L’Anglois was paid £12 12s and in 1764 a payment was made by Henry 7th Lord Digby to ‘L’anglois £23’. These payments are likely to have included the pair of ormolu-mounted rosewood commodes in the Green Drawing Room, which are fitted with the same pattern of angle mounts and drawer handles as the present commode. 

The commode belonged to the renowned late racehorse trainer, John Dunlop. He trained two Derby winners, Shirley Heights (1978) and Erhaab (1994). 

Literature:
Thornton & Rieder, ‘Pierre Langlois, Ebeniste’, Connoisseur Magazine, April 1972
Adam Bowett, Woods In British Furniture Making, 1400-1900, p. 214.

Description:
A rosewood, kingwood and satiné small commode with ormolu mounts, with a shaped rectangular top veneered in two halves within deep crossbanding, above a drawer and two doors enclosing two horizontal shelves and two vertical divisions to create six square pigeon-holes and three rectangular spaces, raised on short splayed legs

‍

Please see downloadable pdf for higher resolution images and price.