An uphostered close stool at Hampton Court Palace The close stool was sometimes called a necessary stool or a night stool. The eighteenth-century euphemism was convenience; the term was further euphemised in the nineteenth century with the term night commode, which John Gloag suggestedJohn Gloag, A Short Dictionary of Furniture, rev. ed. 1969, s.v. "close stool, close stool chair".
|
|
For in Spanish, services is a polite word for a close-stool.
|
|
I have none of their arms anywhere but in this backside, near my close-stool.
|
|
For that reason they told us she never visited a close-stool but by proxy.
|
|
He was thinking of King Henry VIII's black velvet close-stool studded with 2,000 gold nails.
|
|
The Groom of the Stool was a high- ranking courtier who assisted the monarch with the close stool.
|
|
She, that was the cleanliest creature in the world, never shrank now if you set a close-stool under her nose.
|
|
She, that was the cleanliest creature in the world, never shrank now if you set a close-stool under her nose.
|
|
If you allow the occasional use of a close-stool, let it be locked up in the garret that they may not abuse it.
|
|
By combining a close-stool and set of stairs the cabinetmaker of the example illustrated here produced a piece of furniture with two purposes, and practical even today.
|
|
WWII plane The close stool, built as an article of furniture, is one of the earliest forms of portable toilet. They can still be seen in historic house museums such as Sir George-Étienne Cartier National Historic Site in Old Montreal, Canada. The velvet upholstered close stool used by William III is on display at Hampton Court Palace; see Groom of the Stool. Early versions of the "Elsan chemical closet" ("closet" meaning a small room, see water closet, WC, and earth closet) were sold at Army & Navy Stores.
|
|
Oxford University Press, 2008. . dying on his close-stool. Farrer studied at the University of St Andrews, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Magdalen Hall, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in January 1651. Farrer was elected a Fellow of University College in 1651.
|
|
By October 1760 George II was blind in one eye and hard of hearing.Thompson, p. 275; Trench, p. 292; Van der Kiste, p. 212. On the morning of 25 October he rose as usual at 6:00 am, drank a cup of hot chocolate, and went to his close stool alone.
|
|
Purge says that it is a pity the gallants waste their time at the theatre, a pastime she disapproves of. Lipsalve reads Gerardine's sea-will. As Purge hinted, the vast majority of Gerardine's estate has been bequeathed to Maria. A standing cup and close-stool (both phallic-shaped objects) have been bequeathed to Mrs. Purge.
|
|
Hugh Denys, Groom of the King's Close Stool, was present in 1509 at the deathbed of Henry VII at Richmond Palace. He is depicted above his armourials, quartered with Corbet, in this contemporary drawing by the courtier Sir Thomas Wriothesley, fourth on the King's right hand. The youthful features represented are deceptive, for by 1509 Denys was an old man, two years from his own death. Sir Richard Weston of Sutton Place is shown 5th.
|
|
On his return to England he engaged in various projects to exploit the oil shale found in the cliffs near Kimmeridge. Initially he attempted the production of alum, but this infringed on a monopoly granted by James I, and his works were confiscated. He then set up works for the production of glass and salt, using the shale as fuel. The chief disadvantage of burning shale was the smell - one of Clavell's neighbours compared it to a "close stool".
|
|
A chamber pot might be disguised in a sort of chair (a close stool). It might be stored in a cabinet with doors to hide it; this sort of nightstand was known as a commode, hence the latter word came to mean "toilet" as well. For homes without these items of furniture, the chamber pot was stored under the bed. The modern commode toilet and bedpan, used by bedbound or disabled persons, are variants of the chamber pot.
|
|
The Cartoon Gallery at Hampton Court William III's close stool. The palace houses many works of art and furnishings from the Royal Collection, mainly dating from the two principal periods of the palace's construction, the early Tudor (Renaissance) and late Stuart to early Georgian period. In September 2015, the Royal Collection recorded 542 works (only those with images) as being located at Hampton Court, mostly paintings and furniture, but also ceramics and sculpture. The full current list can be obtained from their website.
|
|
Interior of a late 13th- century garderobe at Chirk Castle in Wales. The term is also used to refer to a medieval or Renaissance toilet or a close stool. In a medieval castle, a garderobe was usually a simple hole discharging to the outside into a cesspit (akin to a pit latrine) or the moat (like a fish pond toilet), depending on the structure of the building. Such toilets were often placed inside a small chamber, leading by association to the use of the term garderobe to describe the rooms.
|
|
Museum collection of toilets, bed pans, hip baths, etc. The modern toilet commode is on the right. 19th century heavy wooden toilet commode In British English, "commode" is the standard term for a commode chair, often on wheels, enclosing a chamber pot—as used in hospitals and the homes of invalids. (The historic equivalent is the close stool, hence the coveted and prestigious position Groom of the Stool for a courtier close to the monarch.) This piece of furniture is termed in French a chaise percée ("pierced chair"); similar items were made specifically as moveable bidets for washing.
|
|
Toilet chair A close stool was an early type of portable toilet, made in the shape of a cabinet or box at sitting height with an opening in the top. The external structure contained a pewter or earthenware chamberpot to receive the user's excrement and urine when they sat on it; this was normally covered (closed) by a folding lid. "Stool" has two relevant meanings: as a type of seat and as human feces. Close stools were used from the Middle Ages (the Oxford English Dictionary gives the first citation as 1410) until the introduction of the indoor flush toilet.
|
|
In older houses such as Montacute House servants slept on the floor of the great hall or outside the door of their master's bedchamber; by the 17th century this arrangement was becoming undesirable. Houses then began to have corridors, and the owners, rather than stepping over sleeping servants, began to tidy them away in small rooms, sometimes containing their employer's close-stool. However, these small rooms still had to be within calling distance. In a brand-new, luxurious house such as Easton Neston, this was achieved by inserting two very low-ceilinged mezzanine staff floors between each of the two upper floors.
|
|
A young child sits on a potty A potty or potty chair is a proportionately small chair or enclosure with an opening for seating very young children to "go potty." It is a variant of the close stool which was used by adults before the widespread adoption of water flushed toilets. There are a variety of designs, some placed directly over the toilet called "Toilet Training Seats" so the egested fecal material drops directly into the toilet bowl thereby eliminating manual removal and disposal of the said waste from a receptacle beneath the hole which is often a bag or receptacle similar to a chamber pot. Potty chairs are used during potty training, a.k.a.
|
|