Both types typically have a flat surface on top. Waist-high chests often have a mirror placed vertically on top, which is often bought with the piece. While a user is getting dressed or otherwise preparing their grooming, he or she can look at themselves in the mirror to check their appearance. Terminology The chest drawers were and are called by many names: LAMSAS database contains 37 answers to the request to name a chest of drawers, with "bureau" and "dresser" most popular at 52.5% and 17.5% respectively. Chippendale called them "commode tables" or "commode bureau tables", Hepplewhite used the terms "commodes", "chests of drawers". At the beginning of the 20th century "bureau" became popular in the American English, Morse suggests that the name came from the similarities in the construction to "bureau desks", popular in the 18th century. A chifforobe (from chiffonier + wardrobe) is a combination of a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. History First invented in China by Physician Hua Tuo “華佗“, 180–208 CE. The chest of drawers were often used for storing different types of medicine and called "Hundred Drawers" In late medieval Europe the chest came into widespread use, especially in homes of the nobility. This type, also known as a coffer was more or less a simple joined wooden box with a hinged lid. It may or may not have stood on feet. An early transitional phase was the installation of one drawer beneath this main compartment. A number of early pieces from the seventeenth century are extant of oak manufacture from England, and corresponding seventeenth century pieces of French walnut have survived. Some of the early surviving English specimens are from the Charles I period. Nutting ascribes the earliest piece in his Furniture Treasury to "before 1649". Styles Mule Chest: A chest commonly wider than it is high and deep. A mule chest has drawers in its base and a hinged top, beneath which there are either two short drawers or one long one. This form, introduced in England in the 1600, was popular for 100 years in England and colonial America. Gallery See also Chifforobe Commode Chiffonier Tallboy (furniture) Lowboy Nightstand Tansu Welsh dresser Keyhole References Sources Furniture Cabinets (furniture) Clothing containers ca:Calaixera de:Kommode es:Cómoda eo:Komodo (meblo) fr:Commode (meuble) io:Komodo ja:箪笥 pl:Komoda ru:Комод fi:Lipasto