Chippendale Carved Mahogany Dressing Table

Object Details

Object Essay

The accomplished rococo carving on this dressing table offers a counterpoint to its rectilinear form. An uninterrupted flow of lively, foliate scrolls spreads across the knees and between the front legs, dissolving the outside edges of the brackets and the bottom of the case. By piercing the ornament at the center of the skirt, the carver further dematerialized the mass of the case. The ends of the blossom at the center of the shell, twisted with the same nervous energy, contrast with the still foliage on the drawer, which is restored.^{_{Alan Miller, Quakertown, Pennsylvania, researched and conserved the dressing table in 1989. Another significant repair, done at an earlier date, involved resetting the top approximately three inches forward of its original position. The front edge of the top was remolded, and a strip was pieced on across the back.}1}

This dressing table was made to match a high chest now in a private collection. Both pieces were produced in the same unidentified shop as an important group of Philadelphia high chests and dressing tables. Several of these can be traced to their original owners: a high chest that belonged to the Turner family of Philadelphia; a high chest owned by Judge Stacy Potts of Trenton, New Jersey; and a matching high chest and dressing table that belonged to Joseph Moulder (ca. 1722–1779) of Philadelphia.^{_{Downs 1952, no. 195; Hipkiss, no. 33; Heckscher 1985, no. 165; and Elder and Stokes, no. 63, respectively. Other objects related to this group include a high chest owned by the Dietrich American Foundation (Rollins, 1114. pl. 16). and a dressing table at Bayou Bend (Warren 1975, no. 118).}2} The Turner family chest, which appears to have been carved by the same hand as the dressing table in the Collection, has the same active carving and openwork ornament on its skirt.

David L. Barquist

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.