Dressing table

Date1735-1750

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine, hackberry (by microanalysis), and red cedar (by microanalysis).

DimensionsOH: 29 3/16" OW: 33 3/8" OD: 19 1/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1975-153

DescriptionAppearance: Three drawer dressing table with herringbone-pattern inlay around of top; ogee-molded top boards; shaped rails; thumbnail molded drawers with brass pulls and escutcheon on central drawer; legs have square upper sections with ovolo-molded leading edges and hand shaped and tapered lower sections terminating in pad feet on 1/4" raised disks.

Construction: The single-board top is attached to the frame with glue blocks and hand-filed screws driven from below. Conventional unpinned mortise-and-tenon joinery is used on the rails and legs. The outer drawer guides and runners are glued and nailed to the side rails, while the inner drawer guides and runners, each composed of four elements glued and nailed together, are tenoned into the front blade and backboard. The drawers are dovetailed and their flat bottom panels are set in rabbets at the front and sides and flush nailed at the rear. Nailed-on full-length glue strips that are mitered at the rear cover the side edges of the drawer bottoms.

Materials: Black walnut top, legs, drawer blades, drawer dividers, side rails, backboard, drawer fronts, and outer drawer supports; yellow pine glue blocks, drawer sides, drawer bottoms, drawer backs, drawer runners, and central drawer supports; hackberry and red cedar inlays (both by microanalysis).
Label TextThis early Virginia dressing table features a number of distinctive baroque elements inspired by contemporary British cabinetmaking practices and illustrates the strong presence of British taste in the colony during the first half of the eighteenth century. For instance, the shaped front and side rails precisely mimic those on British dressing tables of the so-called "William and Mary" and "Queen Anne" styles, and the three-drawer arrangement follows the same precedent. The broad herringbone banding that enframes the table top, though rarely encountered in America during this period, was another popular element derived from Great Britain's late baroque design vocabulary. Equally early banding, undoubtedly British inspired, also appears on furniture produced in New York and in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Structural components in the CWF table emulate those found on British furniture as well. In particular, the drawer bottoms are fitted with pairs of full-length glue strips mitered at the rear to prevent the drawers from dragging as they are pushed into the case. The mortise-and-tenon joinery that secures the rails to the legs remains unpinned, suggesting production by an artisan familiar with urban furniture-making traditions.

The table has a history of descent in the Parke and Custis families of southeastern Virginia, where legs of this design were widely produced. Gradually tapering from square to round in section, similar legs are found on a variety of table forms from southeastern Virginia and adjacent northeastern North Carolina. The table's history and the comparatively sophisticated nature of its design and construction indicate that it was almost certainly made in one of the few Tidewater Virginia cities that had become economically viable by the 1740s. Candidates include Hampton and Norfolk, both established in 1680, and Williamsburg, founded in 1699. While the table cannot yet be associated with a particular cabinet shop, its maker was probably one of the many British immigrant artisans who resided in eastern Virginia during the mid-eighteenth century.

InscribedIllegibly signed in chalk on the underside of the central drawer. "GG...." The last name might be Godwin or Godman.
ProvenanceThe table descended in the Parke, Custis, Clements, and Pettit families of southeastern Virginia and, later, Cincinnati, Ohio. CWF purchased it from antiques dealers Bernard and S. Dean Levy, New York, N. Y., in 1975.