Dressing table

Date1750-1760

MediumMahogany, chestnut, tulip poplar, maple

DimensionsOH: 31 1/4"; OW: 35 1/2"; OD: 22 1/4"

Credit LineGift of Mr. & Mrs. Miodrag R. Blagojevich.

Object number1976-444

DescriptionAppearance:
Dressing table with rectangular top with a molded edge, overhanging front and sides with applied molding under the top. There is one long drawer over two small drawers flanking a drawer carved with a concave shell with eleven large lobes and a smaller shell in the center. Serpentine skirts on front and sides. The drawers have lipped edges. The case stands on cabriole legs with sharp knees with claw and ball feet in front and pad feet in back.

Construction:
The mahogany sides with integral sculpted skirts are half-blind dovetailed to the back and screwed with modern screws from the back and glued into rabbets cut in the extended rear legs which terminate and are butt joined to the underside of the modern drawer support. At the front, the sides are probably glued to the top rail, skirt and stiles, and joined with a sliding dovetail to the drawer blade. They are also screwed with modern screws and glued to the rabbeted front legs. The front surfaces of the stiles are mahogany veneered. The stiles are probably lap-joined to the top rail, notched to fit around the drawer blade and possibly lap- joined to the skirt.

The skirt with integral carved shell is rabbeted to fit around the legs. The drawer blade is tenoned into the sides and its leading edge is glued into a rabbet on the back of the upper edge of the center section of the skirt.

A mahogany facing has been glued to the front edge of the drawer blade on either side of the skirt to make it flush with the skirt above the small drawers.

The top is secured to the front top rail, back and sides with blocks that run from corner to corner and are screwed and glued in place. The front block has mitered ends. All of these blocks are modern, with the front block possibly from an earlier reconstruction.
Modern drawer supports for the large drawer are lap-joined and glued to the drawer blade, rest on the top of the rear legs and are tenoned into the back; modern drawer guides are screwed to the upper side of the drawer supports and modern guides to keep the drawer from tipping are nailed to the blocks securing the top to the sides.

The small drawers each have a single center chestnut drawer support that is glued into a notch in the skirt and tenoned into the back. Centermost chestnut vertical drawer guides for the small drawers are dovetailed to the skirt and tenoned into the back. Modern blocks have been nailed to the sides to provide guides for the small drawers on the outer side. Modern triangular glue blocks reinforce the joining of both the small drawer supports and interior drawer guides to the skirt. Small drawer supports and interior guides appear to be original.

A single piece mitered cove molding is nailed to the top front rail, stiles and sides directly underneath the molded edge of the top.
The drawers are of dovetail construction with overlapping edges on the drawer fronts. Although the large drawer has been reconstructed the evidence from the front indicates that it was constructed as it is now, of dovetail construction with bottoms held in dados in the front and sides and back screwed from below (probably originally nailed) to the back. While the small drawers have re-constructed bottoms nailed to the sides, the rest of the construction conforms to that of the large drawer.