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 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 In British English, "commode" is the standard term for a commode chair, often on wheels, enclosing a chamber pot—as used in hospitals and the homes of invalids. (The historic equivalent is the close stool, hence the coveted and prestigious position Groom of the Stool for a courtier close to the monarch.) This piece of furniture is termed in French a chaise percée ("pierced chair"); similar items were made specifically as moveable bidets for washing. In the United States, a "commode" is a colloquial synonym for a flush toilet particularly in the American South. See also Nightstand, a small table or similar next to a bed Lowboy and highboy References Cabinets (furniture) Furniture