This French-derived form was introduced to America during the Rococo period and, while infrequent, continued to be produced throughout the Neoclassical era. The New York price books first record it in 1810 and continue to list it as late as 1834, its description “with Eliptic Ends, and Straight Middle,” corresponding to the Bayou Bend example. Thomas Sheraton comments that the commode could be used in a variety of settings for distinct purposes. Some were “chiefly for ornament, to stand under a glass in a drawing room,” while others were “used by ladies to dress at, in which there is a drawer fitted up with suitable conveniences for the purpose.” The Bayou Bend example was intended for the latter, as its top drawer is arranged for an adjustable looking glass, jewelry, powder, pomade, scent bottles, and other grooming accessories.

Technical notes: Mahogany; mahogany (top drawer rachet), cedrela (drawer sides, bottoms, bottom drawer blocks, backs, drawer stops), eastern white pine (drawer dividers, side cupboards’ shelves, vertical interior sides, interior top framing), yellow-poplar (dustboards). All four legs are fully reeded. The side doors and drawers are hinged at the back. The top central drawer is lined with a vertical partition corresponding to its interior compartments. The latter consists of a rectangular center flanked on either side by four identical cubicles. The presence of diminutive corner posts implies that originally they were outfitted with covers. The center retains its ratchet support, presumably for a looking glass. The hardware is replaced. 

Related examples: Antiques 27 (April 1935), p. 128; Antiques 65 (March 1954), p. 179; Comstock 1962, no. 491; Antiques 102 (December 1972), p. 941, the latter outfitted with a looking glass in the top drawer while the drawer below functions as a writing desk.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.