Images(2)

Dressing Table

Date1730-1780

OriginAmerica, Connecticut or Massachusetts, Worcester County

MediumCherry and white pine; birch legs (microanalysis 4/15/91)

DimensionsOH: 31 1/8"; OW: 42"; OD: 21 7/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-135

DescriptionAppearance: Dressing table, rectangular top with ovolo molding at front and each side; central drawer of skirt flanked by one drawer at each side of same height but narrower in width; each drawer fitted with and inset brass escutcheon and a contemporary but not original brass fitted over the hole drilled for a later knob; front and sides of skirt vigorously scalloped; four cabriole legs square in section and terminating in a pad foot on a slight disc.

Construction:
The shaped scalloped front skirt, sides with scalloped bottom edges and the back and upper front rail are tenoned and pegged with two pegs (one for the upper front rail) into the stiles. The two-board top is pegged to the sides, back and front rail. The stiles are integral with the cabriole legs which terminate in pad feet on a thin disc. Knee blocks for the cabriole legs are glued to the front rail and sides.

The ends of the drawer supports for the three drawers are chamfered on the underside, tenoned into the back and nailed (side supports only) into notches in the upper surface of the front skirt to be flush with it. Drawer dividers are tenoned to the underside of the upper front rail and the upper surface of the front skirt. Inner drawer guides are tenoned to the drawer dividers and back, and side drawer guides are glued and nailed to the case sides. Chamfered vertical blocks are glued behind the two largest drops in the front skirt.
A 8” wide ¾” board (possibly added later) is nailed to the underside of the top with small nails, butt joined to the back and to the back of the upper front rail. The board limits tipping for the middle and proper left (PL) side drawer. Lath nailed to it provides a guide for the PL side drawer.

The drawers are of dovetail construction; edges of drawer bottoms are chamfered on the underside to fit in dados in the front, sides and backs. (Center drawer back has broken along the bottom edge and the chamfered drawer bottom is nailed to the underside of the back.) Top edges of drawer sides and back are rounded.

The middle drawer partition is nailed to the sides from the outside with early nails. Half inch lath strips are nailed to the front edges of the partition and long the proper right side front interior of the drawer side.
Label TextA handful of tables, high chests, and chests of drawers survive with shapely scalloped skirts and/or tops from the Connecticut River Valley. A Wethersfield, Connecticut, merchant's probate inventory of 1782 listed a "Scallop'd Table" referring to the piece's curvaceous skirt or top. These shapely forms continued to be popular until the end of the eighteenth century.
InscribedDrawers are numbered in chalk in the center, inside of their backs, 1-3 with 2 being the center drawer.

Modern chalk on the backboards and underside of the center drawer "9609/12"
MarkingsModern label beneath seat: "L. G. Myers," for collector Louis Geurineau Myers.
ProvenanceEx Coll: L. G. Myers

Exhibition(s)