Dressing or Toilet Table

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Dressing or Toilet Table
Datec. 1700–1725
Made inBoston, Massachusetts, United States
MediumBlack walnut, walnut veneer, and aspen; eastern white pine
Dimensions30 1/4 × 33 5/8 × 21 3/4 in. (76.8 × 85.4 × 55.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.45
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Pine Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The dressing table was often produced en suite with the high chest and was also used in the bedroom. As with the finest examples of the period, this dressing table is veneered with richly figured walnut. Four flitches, fitted together on the top to create a bold pattern, are surrounded by inlaid herringbone and cross-banded borders, and that motif is repeated on the three drawer fronts. The profile of the turned legs relates closely to the style of turning associated with Boston.

Technical notes: Black walnut and walnut veneer, aspen (legs, feet); eastern white pine (top, back and front interior framing, drawer components, backboard). Brasses are replaced. The drawer construction is dovetailed, the bottom board nailed to the sides.

Related examples: Levy Gallery 1992, p. 10, no. 5; Yale (Ward 1988, p. 197, no. 93); Comstock 1966, p. 261; advertisement of R. W. Worth Antiques, Maine Antique Digest, August 1996, p. 39-E. The turnings match those on a Boston high chest at Winterthur (Forman 1970, p. 21).

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.


ProvenanceBy tradition owned by Parson Thomas Smith (1702–1795), Boston, and later Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, late 18th century; [...]; Vincent D. Andrus (1916–1962), New York, by 1955; [Ginsburg & Levy, New York, December 2, 1955–May 28, 1956]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, May 28, 1956; given to MFAH, 1969.
Exhibition History

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Dressing or Toilet Table
c. 1700–1720
Black walnut, aspen, and soft maple; eastern white pine
B.69.52
High Chest
c. 1700–1725
Black walnut, burled walnut veneer, soft maple, and aspen; eastern white pine, hemlock, and birch
B.69.43
Desk
c. 1700–1730
Black walnut, undetermined burl veneer, and eastern white pine; eastern white pine, black walnut, yellow-poplar, cherry, Cuban oyster wood (Gymnanthes lucida), and chestnut
B.69.42
Card Table
c. 1820–1830
Grained, painted, and gilded mahogany, and birch; mahogany veneer on eastern white pine with black walnut banding, ash, eastern white pine, cherry, and original brass casters
B.68.31
scan from file photograph
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; red gum, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and eastern white pine
B.69.527
Étagère
John Henry Belter
1855
Rosewood and rosewood veneer; black walnut, mahogany, eastern white pine, yellow-poplar, undetermined exotic wood (possibly eucalyptus), marble, and mirrored glass
B.81.9.10
scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1775
Black walnut, inlay; eastern white pine
B.69.134
scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1800
Black walnut; yellow-poplar, red oak, Atlantic white cedar, chestnut, eastern white pine, and black walnut
B.61.82
Table
c. 1700–1730
Black walnut; soft maple, chestnut, and eastern white pine
B.59.71
Card Table
c. 1740–1750
Mahogany; mahogany, black walnut, soft maple, eastern white pine, and basswood
B.69.132
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1750–1780
Black-mangrove; black cherry, Atlantic white cedar, black walnut, yelow-poplar, and eastern white pine
B.69.64
Sofa
Johann Michael Jahn
c. 1855
Black walnut; black walnut veneer, pine, and modern upholstery
B.2010.8