This pair of satinwood and marquetry inlaid bedside commodes, each measuring 23in (57cm) wide, sold for £110,000 at Chorley's latest sale at Prinknash Abbey Park, a sum that belied the fall in values registered the latest Antique Furniture Index.
The chests were consigned from a local Cotswold property - a long-standing client of Chorley's - and after much deliberation the auctioneers believed them to be Edwardian reproductions and estimated them accordingly at £4000-6000 at the sale on January 28.
However, many of the major players in the furniture trade who viewed them were confident of an 18th century date and felt that the quality bore comparison with the work of Mayhew & Ince.
John Mayhew and William Ince were among the first London furniture-makers to embrace Robert Adam's neoclassical style and exploit the possibilities of marquetry decoration when it became fashionable once again in the 1760s.
The price equals the house record for furniture - matching the sum paid for a pair of satinwood tables in 2000 when the firm was part of Bruton Knowles.
The buyer's premium was 18%.
