France The term originates in the vocabulary of
French furniture from about 1700. At that time, a
commode meant a
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
veneered
case furniture much wider than it was high, raised on high or low legs. Commodes were made by
ébénistes; 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 pulls). The piece of furniture would be provided with a marble slab top 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 between the windows, in which case it would often be surmounted by a mirror glass, 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
Louis Quinze. Rectilinear neoclassical, or
Louis Seize, commodes might have such deep drawers or doors that the feet were
en toupie—in the tapering
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; pairs of
encoignures 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 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 with pitcher (jug) and towel rack, sometimes known as a commode. In the English-speaking world,
commode passed into cabinet-makers' parlance
in London by the mid-eighteenth century to describe
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 that Commode'' expanded to describe any piece of furniture with
a serpentine front, such as a
dressing table, or even a chair seat. 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. ==Toilet==