Images(2)

Dressing Table

Dateca. 1830

OriginAmerica, Maine (probably)

MediumEastern white pine; basswood, brass, iron, paint, and metallic powder

DimensionsOH: 39 1/16"; OW: 36"; OD: 18"

Credit LineGift of Anonymous Donors

Object number1973.2000.2

DescriptionThis dressing table is decorated in a combination of stenciling and free hand painting. The table has one long bottom drawer below the top and on the top of the table is a small chest with two side by side smaller drawers. Above the upper drawers is a scrolled and painted backboard. All three drawers and the back panel have the same vine, leaf and fruit motifs stenciled on them in a gilt-bronze color. All the drawers have round brass pulls. The backboard is fairly simple. It has a carved scroll design on either end. In these scrolls are stenciled rosettes. The table has a brown rosewood graining with red and yellow banding and red panels. The two front legs are more elaborately turned and geometrically painted than the back legs.
Label TextPaint-decorated dressing tables were especially popular in New England between 1815 and 1840. Used to store combs, brushes, perfumes, sewing accessories, and other personal articles, the acceptance of the form reflected an interest in personal hygiene that grew during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Painted dressing tables commonly have one large drawer in the main case and an accessory box containing one or two drawers mounted on the top. The accessory box is a fixed version of a portable dressing box which was placed on a table or another surface when used. Dressing tables were placed in chambers and dressing rooms, preferably before a window or against the pier between two windows with a looking glass hung above.

New England decorators employed a wider range of painted decorative techniques on dressing tables than on almost any other furniture form produced there. Here, rosewood graining composed of bold red and black stripes serves as a ground for stenciled and freehand-painted fruit and leaves on the drawer fronts and stenciled rosettes on the scrolled terminals of the backboard. Analogous rosewood graining is seen on Maine furniture. In addition, scrolled backboards, legs turned with rings and flattened balls, stenciled rosettes, gold striping, and faux contrasting veneer around drawer fronts are shared by this dressing table and other pieces associated with that state.
ProvenanceGarth and Mary Oberlander, Delaware, Ohio; Mrs. and Mrs. Peter H. Tillou; anonymous gift.