Dressing Table

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Dressing Table
Datec. 1740–1800
Possible placeWethersfield, Connecticut, United States
Possible placeGlastonbury, Connecticut, United States
Possible placeHartford, Connecticut, United States
MediumCherry; eastern white pine
Dimensions33 1/2 × 36 × 19 3/4 in. (85.1 × 91.4 × 50.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.59.70
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Maple Bedroom
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Well-to-do families aspired to create interiors that were unified in their appearance. This concept included coordinating textiles and furnishings, which led to the production of suites of matching furniture. The Bayou Bend dressing table and a similar high chest of drawers (see B.28.1) are evocative of this vogue. They were made by a Connecticut cabinetmaker, their configuration revealing a transfer of design from a principal urban style center, in this instance Boston-Salem, to a less populous one.

Technical notes: Cherry; eastern white pine. The drawers’ partitions and dividers are dovetailed in. The indigenous cherry was stained to resemble imported mahogany. The dressing table has an aged finish.

Related examples: American Collector 10, no. 7 (August 1941), p. 1; Antiques 60 (October 1951), p. 255; Jobe and Kaye 1984, pp. 193–94, no. 34; Antiques 137 (April 1990), p. 833; Nadeau’s Auction Gallery, Colchester, Connecticut, March 31, 1990.

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, 1988.


Provenance[Israel Sack, Inc., New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1959; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History

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

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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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
B.68.31
Tall Clock
Edward Spalding
c. 1765–1785
Mahogany; chestnut, white oak, black cherry, eastern white pine, southern yellow pine, and cherry
B.59.83
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. 1800–1820
Mahogany and unidenfied inlay; eastern white pine and black cherry
B.69.408
Card Table
c. 1820–1825
Mahogany, mahogany veneer, rosewood, and ebony; yellow-poplar, cherry, eastern white pine, and brass
B.68.32
Sofa Table
c. 1815–1825
Mahogany, mahogany veneer; eastern white pine, yellow poplar, cherry, and mahogany
B.71.106
Center Table
Deming & Bulkley
c. 1825–1835
Mahogany; eastern white pine, cherry, paint, and gilt
B.69.526
Card Table
c. 1735–1745
Mahogany and unidentified inlay; mahogany, cherry, eastern white pine, and spruce with needlework
B.69.406
Stand
c. 1785–1850
Black cherry and unidentified inlay; eastern white pine and cherry
B.69.373
Roundabout Chair
c. 1750–1810
Black cherry; black cherry, and eastern white pine
B.69.143
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
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1750–1782
Cherry; eastern white pine and southern yellow pine
B.28.1