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Commode, veneered with Japanese lacquer and japanned, by Berrrrnard II van Risenburgh, Paris, ca 1750-60 Victoria and Albert Museum^[1]

Commode with pitcher and towel rack. Typically, a chamber pot would be kept in the cabinet.

A corn, commode with legs, or commode on legs is any of several pieces of furniture. The word commode comes from the French word for "convenient" or "suitable", which in turn comes from the Latin adjective commodus, with similar meanings.

Originally, in French furniture, a commode introduced about 1700 meant a low cabinet, or chest of drawers at the height of the dado rail (à hauteur d'appui). A commode, made by an ébéniste (cabinet-maker) and applied with gilt-bronze mounts, was a piece of veneered case furniture much wider than it was high, raised on high or low legs^[2] and with (commode à vantaux) or without enclosing drawers. The piece of furniture would be provided with a marble slab top^[3] selected to match the marble of the chimneypiece. A commode occupied a prominent position in the room for which it was intended: it stood against the pier between the windows,^[4] in which case it would often be surmounted by a mirror glass,^[5] or a pair of identical commodes would flank the chimneypiece or occupy the center of each end wall. Bombé commodes, with surfaces shaped in three dimensions were a feature of the rococo style called "Louis Quinze". Rectilinear neoclassical, or "Louis Seize" commodes might have such deep drawers or doors that the feet were en toupie— in the tapering turned shape of a child's spinning top. Both rococo and neoclasical commodes might have cabinets flanking the main section, in which case such a piece was a commode à encoignures;^[6] 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

In the English-speaking , commode passed into London cabinet-makers' parlance 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^[7] that Commode expanded to describe any piece of furniture with a serpentine front, such as a dressing table, or even a chair seat.^[8] 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.

The term "commode" is also a rurally used colloquial synonym for a toilet in the United States. This word was commonly heard in the 20th century but seems to be falling out of favor and has become uncommon to rare.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Chamber pot
• Chest of drawers
• Close stool
• Encoignure
• Nightstand

Notes[link]

Jeanne Aubert (21 February 1900 – 6 March 1988) was a French singer and actress.

Born Marguerite Perrinot in Paris, France to an aristocratic father and a former flower girl, she was pushed by her mother into showbusiness. At age five, she began performing on stage at the Théâtre du Châtelet. As a teenager, she was given voice and music lessons and at age eighteen appeared in an elaborate Mistinguett production at the Casino de Paris.

In 1928 she helped organize the first female branch of the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne (JOC), a Roman Catholic apostolic organization for young people. Jeanne Aubert served as the first president of the JOCF of France.

Using the stage name Jane Aubert, in 1929, she made her motion picture debut in the silent film, "La Possession." Her film was seen by Nelson Morris of Chicago, Illinois a multi-millionaire whose family had made their fortune in meatpacking and who at the time was overseeing a meat processing operation in France. Morris used his connections to get to meet her and the two became involved. Eventually they moved to the United States and married but the marriage did not last. In May 1937, Nelson Morris survived the Hindenburg disaster.

This is referenced in Hindenburg: The Untold Story. Nelson Morris talks to others in a story and says, "The moral of this story is, never marry an actress."

Following her divorce Jeanne Aubert began working in Broadway musical comedies as well as making an appearance in the 1934 East Coast film production "The Gem Of The Ocean". In 1935, she returned to her native France where she acted in several films during the ensuing two years. In 1937, she went back on the Paris stage, performing in musical varieties with the celebrated songstress Fréhel. She was part of a number of other shows in London and other cities throughout Europe including the original London production of Anything Goes by Cole Porter, in which she played the lead role of Reno Sweeney. Although never a headline star, for the next thirty years her career was busy with numerous recordings, film and stage performances, and eventually roles on television.

Jeanne Aubert died in 1988 and was interred in the Cimetière de Pantin in the Parisian suburb of Pantin.

External links[link]

• Jeanne Aubert at the Internet Movie Database
• Jeanne Aubert at Find a Grave
• Temps des cerises aux Feuilles mortes Biography, images and song samples (in French)