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.