Editing Commode (section)

==History and types==

===France===
The term originates in the vocabulary of [[French furniture]] from about 1700. At that time, a ''commode'' meant a [[Cabinet (furniture)|cabinet]] or [[chest of drawers]], low enough so that it sat at the height of the [[dado rail]] (''à hauteur d'appui''). It was a piece of [[Wood veneer|veneer]]ed [[casegoods|case furniture]] much wider than it was high, raised on high or low legs.<ref>A commode with a divided drawer above two deep ones was a ''commode en tombeau''— a "monumental commode"— or, in retrospect, a ''commode à la [[Régence]]''.</ref>

Commodes were made by ''[[ébéniste]]s''; the French word for "[[cabinet-maker]]" is derived from [[ebony]], a black tropical [[hardwood]] notable as a foreign luxury. The beautiful wood was complemented with [[ormolu]] (gilt-bronze [[drawer pull]]s). The piece of furniture would be provided with a marble slab top<ref>The slab might be veneered with a fine or rare marble, such as a [[breccia]]; its edges might be [[molding (decorative)|moulded]].</ref> selected to match the marble of the [[chimneypiece]].

A commode occupied a prominent position in the room for which it was intended: it stood against the [[pier (architecture)|pier]] between the windows,<ref>Such a piece, when made particularly shallow, not to impede passage along the ''[[enfilade]]'' that connected rooms might be called a ''demi-commode'' (Francis J. B. Watson, ''Louis XVI Furniture'' 1973, fig.fig. 27).</ref> in which case it would often be surmounted by a mirror glass,<ref>"In a room with three windows, for instance, one could place between them a ''commode'' with drawers and one with drawers, while still preserving an essential symmetry." (Pierre Verlet, ''French Furniture and Interior Decoration of the 18th Century'', 1967) p. 154)</ref> or a pair of identical commodes would flank the chimneypiece or occupy the center of each end wall.

''Bombé'' commodes, with surfaces shaped in three dimensions, were a feature of the [[rococo]] style called ''[[Style Louis XV|Louis Quinze]]''. Rectilinear neoclassical, or ''[[Style Louis XVI|Louis Seize]]'', commodes might have such deep drawers or doors that the feet were ''en toupie''—in the tapering [[Woodturning|turned shape]] of a child's [[spinning top]]. Both rococo and neoclassical commodes might have cabinets flanking the main section, in which case such a piece was a ''commode à encoignures'';<ref>[[Francis J. B. Watson]], ''Louis XVI Furniture'' 1973,  illustrates as ''commodes à encoignures'' the commode by [[Gilles Joubert]] and [[Roger Vandercruse La Croix]], 1769 for Mme Victoire at [[Château de Compiègne|Compiègne]] (fig. 23 ([[Frick Collection]], New York); the commode by Joubert for Mme Adelaide at Versailles, 1769 (fig. 24, [[Getty Museum]], Los Angeles); the unusually rich and monumental commode by [[Jean-Henri Riesener]] for the king's bedroom at Versailles, 1775 (fig. 32, Musée Condé, Chantilly).</ref> pairs of ''[[encoignure]]s'' or corner-cabinets might also be designed to complement a commode and stand in the flanking corners of a room. If a commode had open shelves flanking the main section it was a ''commode à l'anglaise''; if it did not have enclosing [[drawer (furniture)|drawers]] it was a ''commode à vantaux''.

Before the mid-eighteenth century the commode had become such a necessary article of furniture that it might be made in ''menuiserie'' (carpentry), of solid painted oak, walnut or fruitwoods, with carved decoration, typical of [[French provincial furniture]].

===England===
[[File:Commode, antique w pitcher.jpg|thumb|130px|upright|A [[washstand]] with pitcher (jug) and towel rack, sometimes known as a commode.]]

In the English-speaking world, ''commode''  passed into cabinet-makers' parlance [[18th-century London|in London by the mid-eighteenth century]] to describe [[chest of drawers|chests of drawers]] with gracefully curved fronts, and sometimes with shaped sides as well, perceived as being in the "French" taste. [[Thomas Chippendale]] employed the term "French Commode Tables" to describe designs in ''The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Director'' (1753), and [[Ince and Mayhew]] illustrated a "Commode Chest of drawers", plate xliii, in their ''Universal System of Household Furniture'', 1759–62. [[John Gloag]] notes<ref>Gloag, ''A Short Dictionary of Furniture'' , rev. ed. 1969, ''s.v.'' "Commode,  "Commode Front".</ref> that ''Commode'' expanded to describe any piece of furniture with [[Serpentine shape|a serpentine front]], such as a [[dressing table]], or even a chair seat.<ref>Richard Magrath, a cabinet-maker and upholsterer in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], advertised for sale in 1771 ""Half a Dozen Caned Chairs, a Couch to match them, with commode fronts, and Pincushion seats." (Noted in Gloag, ''op. cit'', ''s.v.'' "Commode Front").</ref> Gloag points out that [[Thomas Shearer]]'s designs for two "commode dressing chests" illustrated in ''The Cabinet-Makers' London Book of Prices'', 1788, plate 17, are repeated, but as "serpentine dressing chests", in ''The Prices of Cabinet Work'', 1797 edition.