Editing Commode (section)

===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.