ADAM'S Country House Collections Day II - 28th April 2026

109 583 A GEORGE III SATINWOOD AND MARQUETRY DEMI- LUNE COMMODE, ATTRIBUTED TO MAYHEW AND INCE, the top decorated with floral swags and inlaid fan motif, over a satinwood scrollwork frieze, and central section with painted oval vignette flanked by side cupboards inlaid with classical urns, on short tapering legs and ball feet. 131cm wide, 88cm high, 58cm deep Literature: For comparable floral marquetry to the top of the commode please see Indus- try and Ingenuity, The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew, Roberts and Cator, London and Dublin, 2022, p.297 € 10,000 - 15,000 Established in 1759 by John Mayhew and William Ince, the business oper- ated at a time when English furniture design was undergoing a transition from the late Rococo taste to the refined symmetry of Neoclassicism. The pair were in both in their twenties, when they completed their apprentice- ships as cabinet makers and upholsters after which they then joined as business partners. The partnership remained active until around April 1800, when a notice announcing dissolution of partnership appeared in newspa- pers (Ince’s son Charles would be carrying on business at his father’s ad- dress), making it one of the longer lasting and more consistently successful firms of the period Working from premises in Soho, the then centre of London’s luxury trades, Mayhew and Ince produced high quality furniture for an elite clientele, it was said that their clientele was ‘probably larger’ than that of their rival, Thomas Chippendale, and work ‘arguably more influential’. Their patrons included members of the aristocracy and gentry, and the firm was responsi- ble for furnishing important country houses. Notable commissions include work supplied to Osterley Park for the banker Francis Child, where their furniture complemented the celebrated interiors designed by Robert Adam. Mayhew and Ince are particularly renowned for their 1762 publication The Universal System of Household Furniture, one of the most important En- glish pattern books of the eighteenth century. This volume illustrated a wide range of designs and helped disseminate contemporary taste, blending Ro- coco ornament with emerging classical motifs. It remains a key document in the study of English furniture. Their work is distinguished by refined proportions, inventive marquetry, and a sophisticated use of veneers such as satinwood, tulipwood, and hare- wood. They were early adopters of Neoclassical design in England, incor- porating elements such as urns, wreaths, and delicate linear inlay. Certain pieces attributed to the firm display distinctive traits, including finely exe- cuted floral marquetry panels, elegant, tapered legs, and complex banding, often combining multiple exotic timbers in subtle and harmonious arrange- ments. Although not every piece was labelled, furniture attributed to Mayhew and Ince is recognised through a combination of documentary evidence, design parallels with their published plates, and characteristic craftsmanship. Their output represents a crucial link between mid-eighteenth-century decorative exuberance and the restrained elegance that defined later Georgian taste. The elegant George III satinwood and marquetry demi lune commode (lot 583) and the George III satinwood and marquetry side tables (lot 583) ex- emplify the refined Neoclassical taste associated with Mayhew and Ince at the height of their practice in the later eighteenth century. Constructed in richly figured satinwood and adorned with intricate marquetry, the pieces demonstrate the firm’s mastery of both design and execution.