What are Commodes?

Traditionally in England, France, and some other European countries commodes were intricately carved and beautifully designed cabinets or like a chest of drawers or even a dressing table for the bedroom.

Commode now has multiple meanings. From the Oxford English dictionary it is quoted to be, ` A piece of furniture with drawers and shelves; in the bedroom, a sort of elaborate chest of drawers, like in France; in the drawing-room, a large and generally old-fashioned kind of Chiffonier. `` The drawing room is in itself a term used for a formal recaptioning room, and a chiffonier in this sense is a small sideboard dating from the very old 19th century.

Another meaning given to it is a Washstand, equipped with a badsin, a jug, and a towel rail, and very often a with a space to store the chamber pot behind closed doors. A Washstand in the bedroom pre-dates indoor bathrooms and running water facilities.

With the British, a `commode` is considered to be a commode chair, which is often on wheels, which encloses a chamber pot-as used in hospitals and some homes.

In America, a commode is a synonym for a flush toilet.

A commode occupied a very specific and special spaced in the room for which it was intended. It occupied a space between neighboring windows surmounted sometimes with mirror glass.

Bombe commodes, with the surfaces shaped in 3 dimensions, happen to be features from the Rococo style called Louis Quinze. Then there was rectilinear neoclassical style or Louis Seize style. With very deep drawers Corner cabinets would sometimes be laid on the two corners of a wall with a commode cabinet occupying a central position, to enhance the effect.

Just before the mid-eighteenth century the commode had become a very essential article of furniture and was made using the finest wood available. Ebony, oak, walnut, or fruit woods with carved decoration, which was typical of the French provincial furniture.

So this was an overview of commodes. McCoy Mart and several other websites can take you places on this halt. Happy perusing!