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
Flax and Wool Cabinet Flax and Wool Cabinet The Flax and Wool Cabinet or the Flax and Wool Wardrobe is a large piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges. It may have been the first large piece of painted furniture that Burges designed. The cabinet is one of three large pieces of furniture that Burges designed that were displayed at the Architectural Exhibition in Connaught Street, London, in 1859. The other two pieces were the Architectural Cabinet, and the Yatman Cabinet. At the exhibition the three pieces were described as having been made in the preceding 12 months,