Images(2)

Dressing Table

Date1815-1820

OriginAmerica, New Hampshire, Portsmouth

MediumWhite pine, basswood, maple, brass, iron, paint, and gilt

DimensionsOH: 36 1/4"; OW: 36 7/8": OD: 17 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1974.2000.2

DescriptionAppearance: Decorated dressing table with one drawer and attached box in center rear of top also with one drawer. Table and box both have elliptic shaped fronts, half-elliptic sides, and ovolo corners. Base color is light blue which has yellowed to a blue green. Turned legs with thick ring-turned colonnettes at top; pin striping and banding in yellow and gold paint; 1" spiral banding on main section of legs in gold paint; banding does not continue on back of rear legs. Both top and main drawers have bowed (elliptic) fronts outlined with yellow pin striping and decorated with freehand bunch of grapes in gold, black, and brown and leaves in powder green over gold with yellow and brown veining and outlining. Shaped top of main case and accessory box are covered with a multi-layered "oyster-shell" technique in medium-dark blue, perhaps suggesting marble.

Construction: The rear rail is tenoned to the rear legs. Each side rail consists of a straight board nailed to a bowed block. The block is tenoned to the rear leg; the straight board is tenoned to the front leg. The drawer guides are glued to the straight portion of the side rails. The upper and lower front rails are dovetailed to a block glued to the inner face of each side rail. The one-board top is secured to the frame by means of screws affixed to the front, side and rear rails. A medial brace beneath the top is tenoned into the rear rail and set into a dovetail-shaped slot in the front rail. The one-board top and bottom of the dressing box are nailed to the thick one-board sides. The gilded ball feet are round-tenoned into the table top. The large drawer is joined with dovetails, which are neat and precise in execution. The drawer front consists of three boards; a bowed outer one glued at either end to straight boards. The bottom-- three boards with grain parallel to the front -- fits into dadoes cut into the front and sides and is nailed to the back. The small drawer conforms in construction, but the front is made from one board, and the bottom is glued to the rabbeted edges of the front and sides and nailed to the back.
Label TextDressing tables, also known as "toilet tables," achieved a fairly high level of popularity in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, between 1805 and 1820. Most surviving dressing tables made in that city utilize hardwoods and veneers in their construction. This painted softwood example was originally owned by Abraham Wendell (1785-1865), a member of Portsmouth, New Hampshire's mercantile elite. Wendell's ownership of the piece reflects the acceptance of painted bed chamber and dressing-room furniture by wealthy New Englanders in the early-nineteenth century. The dressing table's urbane design and handsome decoration was considered as stylish as hardwood furniture, making it an appropriate accessory for the home of an affluent Portsmouth resident.

Distinctive polychrome and gilt decoration was substituted for figured veneers, reeded legs, and contrasting inlays on elliptical Portsmouth dressing tables and, more specifically, on card tables featuring the elliptic front, half-elliptic ends, and ovolo corners that inspired this design. The light blue ground, gilt spiral-striped legs, stenciled clusters of grapes with freehand-painted tendrils, and a dressing box that is a miniature duplicate of the main case are effectively contrasted by a dramatic, dark blue putty-painted top.

Cabinetmakers Jonathan Judkins and William Senter supplied a similar dressing table and a matching washstand to Abraham's brother, Jacob, about the same time Abraham acquired this one. However, differences in the turnings on the two dressing tables suggest Abraham's was probably made by a different shop.
Inscribed"5-10. . ./ 1=6 Wc. . ./ 1=26 deep at" and "6=3½ / 2=8" is inscribed in chalk on the underside of the top.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceAbraham Wendell, Portsmouth, N. H.; to his daughter, Vallina Wendell Peterson (1827-1911), Brooklyn, N. Y.; to her daughter, Frances Peterson Salter, N. Y.; to her daughter, Frances Wendell Lawson; to her daughter, Mrs. Stewart (Ruth L.) Lines, Portsmouth, N. H.; Herbert Dyer Antiques, Northampton, N. H.; James R. Bakker and Robert E. Cleaves, Littleton and Groton, Mass.; unidentified antiques dealer; William C. Putnam, Rockport, Mass.

Exhibition(s)