Maker
Unknown American
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Dressing Table
Datec. 1760–1800
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumMahogany; southern yellow pine, yellow-poplar, and Atlantic white cedar
Dimensions30 1/2 × 34 1/2 × 20 in. (77.5 × 87.6 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.58.147
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Philadelphia Hall (Downstairs)
On view
Explore Further
Department
Bayou BendObject Type
The Philadelphia Rococo dressing table is among the most successful adaptations and design achievements of the colonial period. In England the form was no longer current, yet in America it persisted and in Philadelphia was masterfully integrated into the Late Baroque and Rococo idioms.
Related examples: Stillinger 1990, pp. 46–47, 151.
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.
ProvenancePossibly first owned by Joseph Longstreth (1744–1803), Southampton Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; inherited by his son Joshua (1775–1869), who married Sarah Williams (1781–1848) in 1800; inherited by their daughter Lydia (Mrs. Richard Price, 1801–1843); or inherited by her daughter, Rebecca (Mrs. William Hunt, b. 1834); inherited by her son George W. Hunt (1860–1907); or inherited by his son, George W. Hunt, Jr.; [Victorholt, S.A., by May 21, 1955]; purchased by [Ginsburg & Levy, New York, 1955–1958]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1958; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Label attached to the backboard: George W. Hunt: this bureau belonged to my great grandfather, Joshua Longstreth, Barclay Hall
Label attached to the backboard: George W. Hunt, Jr.: this bureau belonged to his great-great grandmother Sarah Williams Longstreth, born 1781, died at Barclay Hall, third month 16th 1848. Sixth month, 29, 1917
Label attached to the backboard: George W. Hunt, Jr.: this bureau belonged to his great-great grandmother Sarah Williams Longstreth, born 1781, died at Barclay Hall, third month 16th 1848. Sixth month, 29, 1917
[no marks]
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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Unknown American
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c. 1755–1800
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c. 1755–1800
Mahogany; yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and Atlantic white cedar
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c. 1730–1800
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c. 1760–1800
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c. 1730–1800
Black walnut; yellow-poplar, red oak, Atlantic white cedar, chestnut, eastern white pine, and black walnut
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Unknown American
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany; southern yellow pine, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar; marble
B.69.67