Commode

Amaranth, tulipwood, fruitwood, kingwood, and sycamore on oak base and with a Rance marble top
Signed SG for the Amsterdam guild of furniture makers "St-Josephsgilde"
The Netherlands, Louis XV, ca. 1770
81 x 83 x 50cm

The popularity of imported French furniture was regarded as a major threat by the Amsterdam cabinetmakers gild. Therefore they issued regulations that forbidding the trade in foreign furniture. Within a transition period of three months dealers were allowed to sell their stock of foreign furniture but only if they had it branded with the SG-mark of the St-Josephsgilde. So most of the furniture bearing this mark is French. However there are a few example of Dutch furniture bearing the mark, this commode being one of them. These were most probably made outside of Amsterdam but sold in Amsterdam around 1771.