Commode painted oak, walnut or fruitwoods, with carved decoration, typical of French provincial furniture. 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
Matthew Hilton (designer) Matthew Hilton (designer) Matthew Hilton (born 1957) is a British furniture designer of "modern" furniture and lighting. Hilton attended Portsmouth College of Art and then Kingston Polytechnic graduating in 1979. After graduation he was an industrial designer and model maker until 1984. In 1991, he designed the "Balzac Armchair" for SCP Limited, a company started by Sheridan Coakley in 1985 and now based in Shoreditch, London. Between 2000 and 2004 Hilton was Habitat's Head of Furniture design, and his furniture is held in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Geffrye Museum, London, and the Manchester