From New England to Pennsylvania, indigenous maple with curled grain, although difficult to work, was highly prized for its figured pattern, which, as here, was customarily stained to imitate the appearance of imported mahogany. The prominent profile of the arched skirt relates this dressing table to others with Delaware Valley origins. Perhaps this feature is a continuation from the Early Baroque, or conversely, the copy of an English Late Baroque example. 

Technical notes: Soft maple; southern yellow pine (upper drawer divider’s rails, drawer sides, backs, and case back), Atlantic white cedar (framing strips, runners, drawer bottoms). The drawer partitions abut the divider and skirt. The drawer supports are mortised into the back. Just above the upper drawer opening are braces running front to back and free of the top.

Related examples: Dressing tables with similar skirt profiles include Downs 1952, no. 322; Sack 1966–92, vol. 4, p. 904, no. P3603.

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.