Dressing or Toilet Table

Public Domain

En lire plusFavori

CultureAmerican

Titles

Dressing or Toilet Table

Datec. 1700–1720

Made inBoston, Massachusetts, United States

MediumBlack walnut, aspen, and soft maple; eastern white pine

Dimensions28 1/4 × 38 × 21 3/4 in. (71.8 × 96.5 × 55.2 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg

Object numberB.69.52

Current Location

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens

Pine Room

Exposé

Explore Further

Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

FURNITURE

Description

The seeming simplicity of this dressing or toilet table, with single drawer and plain walnut, rather than veneered, surfaces, belies the sophistication evidenced by the turned elements and saltire-shaped stretcher. The design of the turned legs, with high, rounded cup and little rebate below, echoes that on both other high-style case pieces of Boston origin and on a rare and sophisticated Boston-made slate-top table. The stretcher is molded rather than following the more common flat design; the angled terminals at the turned legs add a distinctive detail.

Technical notes: Black walnut (top, sides, drawer front, front skirt, cross stretchers and finial, five block caps), aspen (feet, center drop), soft maple (legs); eastern white pine (backboard, corner case posts, drawer runners, center block). Brasses are not original. The drawer construction is dovetailed, the bottom board nailed, with grain running side to side.

Related examples: Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford (Forman 1987, p. 161, no. 12); similar leg design: Nutting 1962, nos. 388, 1092, a dressing table and high chest; Randall 1965, no. 55, a slate-top table.

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.

ProvenanceGrossman, by May 1928; [Ginsburg & Levy, New York, May 1928–October 25, 1951]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, October 25, 1951; given to MFAH, 1969.
Exhibition History

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

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Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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c. 1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843

Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine

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Side Chair (one of a pair)

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Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine

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Black walnut; red gum, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and eastern white pine

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c. 1730–1775

Black walnut, inlay; eastern white pine

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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

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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