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
Frits Henningsen Frits Henningsen Frits Henningsen (1889–1965) was a Danish furniture designer and cabinet maker who achieved high standards of quality with exclusively handmade pieces. Henningsen was both the proprietor of a furniture-making workshop with a team of cabinetmakers in central Copenhagen as well as the designer of his own products. An active member of the Cabinetmakers Guild from 1927, he was admired by his peers for the high quality of his craftsmanship. Many of his pieces were crafted in exotic woods such as palisander and mahogany. All his furniture is handmade in line with traditional, labour-intensive methods from the 19th century.