A Bidet is a sanitary fixture originally designed for personal hygiene and became a common feature of affluent European homes from the eighteenth century onwards. Early antique bidets were often housed within finely crafted wooden cabinets resembling small stools or bedside furniture, concealing porcelain or ceramic bowls beneath hinged lids. Antique bidets are now collected as examples of fine cabinetmaking and historic domestic life rather than for their original purpose.