Christopher Townsend
Dressing Table

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Dressing Table
Datec. 1750–1755
Made inNewport, Rhode Island, United States
MediumMahogany; yellow-poplar, eastern white pine, and chestnut
Dimensions31 1/4 × 35 1/2 × 22 1/8 in. (79.4 × 90.2 × 56.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.59.96
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Newport Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Rhode Island dressing tables are not known in the comparable numbers of their companion form, the high chest of drawers. By contrast the bureau table, which functioned in a similar manner, was more prevalent, as evidenced by the existence of perhaps three times the number of examples. The Bayou Bend table, with its unadorned surfaces, recessed shell, and undercut claws, is characteristic of Rhode Island design and craftsmanship. The legs are separate components, perhaps for flexibility in packing and shipping, a construction seemingly carried over from the Early Baroque period. The drawer arrangement is reminiscent of that on Early Baroque dressing tables and the lower case of Rhode Island high chests. An added refinement is the use of claw rather than pad feet for the rear legs and the molded top’s notched corners.

Related examples: Antiques 55 (February 1949), pp. 88–89; Antiques 89 (January 1966), p. 56; Carpenter 1972, p. 286; Sotheby’s, New York, sale 4785Y, January 27–30, 1982, lot 1055; Antiques 125 (March 1984), p. 544.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., 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.


ProvenanceCharlotte Foster, probably Rhode Island; [...]; Chase family, Providence, Rhode Island, and Portland, Maine, area; purchased by [David Stockwell (1907–1996), Wilmington, Delaware]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, December 14, 1959; given to MFAH, by 1966..
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed: Elaborate letter [multiple A’s?], in graphite, on exterior back of proper-right deep drawer; “B,” in graphite, on exterior back of proper-left deep drawer; “2 [probably later],” in graphite, on exterior bottom of proper-right deep drawer; possible illegible graphite, in front corners of deep drawers; faint graphite [M?], on interior back of middle drawer; "I [or F] H," in chalk, at center of back; "Bought of Miss / Charlotte Foster / to whom her / sister left her mother's / Furniture," in chalk, on proper-right exterior of back board.
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Mahogany; eastern white pine; chestnut; yellow poplar, and cedar
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Mahogany; mahogany, eastern white pine, chestnut, soft maple, and yellow poplar
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John Townsend
1800
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Side Chair (one of a pair)
John Townsend
1800
Mahogany; birch, soft maple, eastern white pine, and poplar
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scan from file photograph
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c. 1765–1785
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B.59.83
scan from file photograph
c. 1760–1800
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