Philadelphia city directories list Thomas Natt at 134 High Street from 1825 to 1837, although it is known that he had left that address by 1835 (see B.68.26). While the label on this box reads Market Street, High is another name used for that street in the nineteenth century. This form must have been a very popular Philadelphia product, as a number of examples labeled by Natt and many other Philadelphia-made dressing boxes survive. However, in a later label (see B.68.26), Natt omitted mention of dressing boxes and added mantel, pier, and toilette glasses.

Technical notes: Mahogany; eastern white pine (backboard of base case, mirror backboard), holly (stringing around front drawers), yellow-poplar (bracket behind front left foot, possibly a replacement), brass, mirror glass. Label on backboard: [THO]MAS NATT, / AT HIS /  [WHOL]ESALE AN[D RET]AIL / [LOOKING G]LASS MA[NUF]ACTORY, / [NO. 134, M]ARKET STREET SOUTH SIDE, / [THREE D]OORS ABOVE FOURTH STREET, / [K]eeps constantly on hand / [A LARGE] AND GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF / GIL[T, mahogan]y, and fancy framed looking-glasses, / [dressin]g-boxes, swings, sconces, &c. &c. / S[ou]thern, Western, and other Merch[a]nts, suppli[ed] on the low / est terms, for Cash or Acceptances. / N. B. Importer of P[la]te Glass, and Looking-glass P[la]tes of all dimensions.

Related examples: Winterthur, Historic Houses of Odessa, Delaware, David Wilson House (DAPC); PMA; two advertised by Elizabeth R. Daniel, Antiques 125 (April 1984), p. 726; and Antiques 180 (July 1986), p. 34.

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.