Dressing Table

Date1775-1790

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Piedmont or Virginia

MediumRiver birch (betula nigra, by microanalysis) with yellow pine and tulip poplar.

DimensionsH: 28 1/8"; W: 37"; D: 19 5/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-4

DescriptionAppearance: Rectangular dressing table with two drawers; top molded at front and sides; shaped front and side aprons with scratch-beaded edges; marlborough legs with beaded outer edges and chamfered interior edges.

Construction: The top is pinned to the frame, and pins secure the mortised and tenoned legs. The bottoms of the dovetailed drawers are set into grooves along the fronts and sides and flush-nailed at the rear. Each drawer is supported by two runners. Those on their inside edges are tenoned into the backboard and set into open mortises on the front rail. The two outer drawer runners each consist of a birch strip nailed to the interior of the side rails and a smaller yellow pine strip that actually supports the drawer and is nailed to the birch strip. Single iron nails driven into the back of both drawers serve as stops.

Materials: River birch (betula nigra, by microanalysis) top, front rail, side rails, back rail, legs, drawer fronts, drawer sides (left drawer), and outer drawer runner frames; yellow pine drawer sides (right drawer), drawer bottoms, inner drawer runners, and outer drawer runner extensions; tulip poplar drawer backs.
Label TextGenerally associated with the cabinet industry of New England, birch furniture was also produced in the South, although in smaller quantities. The varieties of birch employed in southern cabinet shops differed from those used in the North, however. This plain southern dressing table is made of Betula nigra, or river birch, a tree widely distributed through southern forests but not found above the Hudson River valley and consequently almost never encountered in New England furniture.

Birch tables, bedsteads, and case pieces were made both along the southern coast and in the backcountry. Relatively few pieces have been identified to date, but written references are plentiful. In 1774, the owner of a sawmill on the Mattaponi River in southeastern Virginia advertised the sale of sawn lumber, including birch, which he observed "makes elegant Furniture." When cabinetmakers Richard Powell and Joseph Faux opened their Fayetteville, North Carolina, shop in 1790, they advised sawyers and the public alike that a "good price" would be given for birch. Later in the same decade, Samuel White of Petersburg, Virginia, produced high-post bedsteads of stained birch for Sir Peyton and Lady Jean Skipwith of Mecklenburg County. During the early nineteenth century, less costly birch bedsteads became such popular substitutes for the mahogany models that shipments of birch plank to ports like Alexandria were frequently advertised as "suitable for bedsteads."

Furniture directly related to the CWF dressing table is currently unknown, but several of its features suggest production in the Piedmont rather than the coastal plain. Unusual and exuberant rail shapes akin to these appear on a number of Piedmont dressing tables including a black walnut example with a history in Fauquier or Stafford County, Virginia (MESDA research file 4055). Despite its light appearance, the CWF table features unusually heavy structural elements, including three-quarter-inch-thick drawer sides and large dovetail pins. Commonly associated with furniture from the backcountry, such details may reflect the influence of Germanic furniture-making traditions. The table's singular drawer stops point toward rural production as well. Each drawer is stopped by a wrought-iron nail that protrudes from its rear face and contacts the back rail when the drawer is closed.

Though of simple form, the table exhibits several uncommon elements. For instance, its Gothic arched side rails and deeply shaped front rail reflect those seen on British, Virginia, and northern dressing tables from the first half of the century. Shaping of this sort had been out of fashion for twenty years or more by the time the table was made. The drawer arrangement in which two small openings are widely separated by a high central arch is without known precedent, as are the large paired nodules on either side of the arch. These and other elements of the table's overall design in all likelihood represent the reaction of a backcountry artisan to furniture designs from urban centers along the coast.

InscribedNone.
MarkingsRoman numerals chiseled into the upper interior surfaces of the legs represent the maker's construction marks.
ProvenanceThe table was purchased from William Green of Richmond, Virginia, in 1930.