Dressing or Toilet Table

Dressing or Toilet Table

Public Domain

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
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
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
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Dressing or Toilet Table
Dressing or Toilet Table
c. 1700–1725
Black walnut, walnut veneer, and aspen; eastern white pine
B.69.45
High Chest
High Chest
c. 1700–1725
Black walnut, burled walnut veneer, soft maple, and aspen; eastern white pine, hemlock, and birch
B.69.43
Desk and Bookcase
Desk and Bookcase
c. 1760–1790
Mahogany; eastern white pine, soft maple, chestnut, red cedar, poplar-aspen or cottonwood, white oak, and Spanish cedar or cedrela
B.69.22
Table
Table
c. 1700–1730
Black walnut; soft maple, chestnut, and eastern white pine
B.59.71
Card Table
Card Table
c. 1740–1750
Mahogany; mahogany, black walnut, soft maple, eastern white pine, and basswood
B.69.132
scan from file photograph
High Chest of Drawers
c. 1730–1775
Soft maple, black walnut, and inlay; eastern white pine
B.69.221
Side Chair (one of a pair)
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
B.69.247.1
scan from file photograph
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c.1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
B.69.247.2
scan from file photograph
Dressing Table
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; red gum, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and eastern white pine
B.69.527
scan from file photograph
Dressing Table
c. 1730–1775
Black walnut, inlay; eastern white pine
B.69.134
Card Table
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
Desk
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