Dressing table

Dateca. 1760

MediumMahogany, yellow pine, white pine, tulip poplar and white cedar.

DimensionsOH: 28.5" OW: 34.5" OD: 22.5"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-258

DescriptionAppearance:
Rectangular dressing table with one long over three short drawers; top with molded edge overhangings case; deeply extended and scrolled skirt; cabriole legs, with knee blocks, ending with claw and ball feet; rococo style, brass drawer pulls and escutcheon.

Construction:
The two-board top (butt joined) top overlaps the upper rail, side and back and is face-pegged to them with through-pegs on the upper rail. A series of reinforcing rectangular chamfered glue blocks (some modern) line the underside of the top. Two rectangular blocks are glued to the underside of the top under the joining of its two boards (evidence indicates that two additional blocks are now missing). The top is edged with integral ogee molding (10” section on PL front replaced). The upper rail is tenoned and pegged to the stiles, as are the shaped lower rail (double-pegged), the single board sides (four pegs) and the yellow pine single board back (four pegs). A mitered cove-molding under the top is nailed to the sides and front. The primary wood is mahogany.

The drawer blade for the upper drawers is tenoned to the stiles. The vertical drawer dividers for the lower drawers are through-tenoned to the drawer blade and tenoned to the lower rail. The center of the lower rail is relieved ½” for the deeper center drawer. The inner drawer guides are rabbeted on one side to serve as drawer supports for the side drawers and are nailed from above to the case floor/bottom board. (The center drawer rests on the floor.) The outside drawer supports for the upper as well as lower drawers are also rabbeted to serve as drawer supports and are nailed to the sides.

The two-board white and yellow pine bottom is nailed to the back from the back with three nails and is possibly tenoned to the sides. On the underside of the bottom, a series of closely spaced rectangular chamfered glue blocks are on each side, in the back and front corners and in the front center. The glue blocks are shaped to correspond with the shaping on the bottom edge of the sides and the lower rail.

The cabriole legs are integral with the stiles and terminate in carved ball and claw feet. The knee blocks are nailed to the upper legs and to the underside of the lower rail and sides.

The drawers are of dovetail construction. An integral thumbnail molding on the drawer fronts overlaps the drawer openings. The bottoms are chamfered on the underside side edges to fit into dados in the front and sides. Shaped blocks are glued into the chamfered areas to make the bottoms uniformly flat. The bottoms are nailed from the underside to the edge of the backs (a single nail on the small drawers and three nails on thee wide upper drawer). Drawer bottoms are cedar, drawer sides and backs are tulip poplar. Locks are missing in all drawers. A modern glue block fills the relieved lock area of the middle small drawer. Brasses are modern.

Woods: Primary: mahogany, Secondary wood: white and yellow pine, tulip poplar and white cedar.
Label TextInfluenced by Chinese design, the animalistic ball-and-claw foot became popular in London during the 1730s and in Philadelphia as early as the 1740s. This typical Philadelphia dressing table form with a heavy, low stance and solid legs remained in vogue until the 1770s. Examples from Pennsylvania and nearby Delaware and Maryland were often carved in the rococo style with shells and foliate motifs on the drawers, skirt, and knees.
Inscribed"No 2" in pencil on PL side of center drawer.
"3" on Proper left side of PR drawer
"1", "2", "3" in pencil on bottom board under three small drawers from PL to PR.
Provenance"I purchased it privately in Germantown, Philadelphia, from an old person, having known of it for some time... In the same family is a semi-circular small Baltimore card table with excellent little American eagles inlaid at the top fo the legs..." (letter from the source to John M Graham II, September 27, 1962)

Exhibition(s)