Close stool
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Toilet_chair.jpg/140px-Toilet_chair.jpg)
A close stool was an early type of
At the Tudor Court
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Hampton_privy_9740.jpg/140px-Hampton_privy_9740.jpg)
Records of the English court mention the "close stool" and detail its construction.
Other names
In Scotland, equivalent close stools appear in inventories and were sometimes called "dry stools" or "stools of ease".
The close stool was sometimes called a necessary stool or a night stool. The eighteenth-century euphemism was convenience; the term was
The French term for this item of furniture is a chaise percée ("pierced chair"), as it often takes the form of a chair with a seat which raises to show the opening to the pot; similar items were made specifically as a moveable bidet.
The French secretary of
Developments
A nineteenth century development is the thunderbox.
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Italian thunderbox c. 1750
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19th Century thunderbox
Cultural significance
The Groom of the Stool was a high-ranking courtier who assisted the monarch with the close stool.
See also
References
- ^ Maria Hayward, 'William Green, Coffer-Maker to Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I', Furniture History, 36 (2000), pp. 7–8, 13.
- ^ 'Accounts of the Groom of the Stole', The Antiquary, 20 (London, 1889), p. 190.
- ^ Eleri Lynn, Tudor Textiles (Yale, 2020), p. 102.
- ^ Nicholas Harris Nicolas, The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey (London, 1825), p. cxxvii.
- ^ Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 47, 138-9.
- ^ John Gloag, A Short Dictionary of Furniture, rev. ed. 1969, s.v. "close stool, close stool chair".
- ^ Joseph Stevenson, History of Mary Queen of Scots by Claude Nau (Edinburgh, 1883), p. 10