of three drawers, furnished with ornate brass handles. This commode, after a design by Thomas Chippendale, shows a richness and subtlety of design The word commode is French and came into use in the French Court about 1700. It refers to a cabinet or chest of drawers, low enough so that it sat at the height of the dado rail (à hauteur d'appui) The word commode was accepted as the norm in London by the mid-eighteenth century to describe chests of drawers with gracefully curved fronts and sometimes with shaped sides as well. Thomas Chippendale used the term ‘French Commode Tables’ to describe designs in his The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Director (1753). Noteworthy on the commode on offer are the richly cast scroll handles, as detailed by Chippendale: 'The ornamental Parts are intended for Brass-Work, which I should advise should be modelled in Wax and then cast from these Models’ (Director…, pl. LXVII).