Dressing Table

1750–70

Artist unknown (American, 18th century)
Salem, Massachusetts area

Dressing tables were most often made together with high chests of drawers. Used in the bedchamber, the dressing table held objects for grooming, such as combs, brushes, powders, ribbons, and pieces of lace. A looking glass was often hung above the table, or a dressing glass was set upon the table. A silk, velvet, or cotton textile, known as a toilette, would have covered the top and protected it from wear and damage.

Status: On View, Gallery 166
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Artist unknown
Title: Dressing Table
Place: Salem (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1750–1770
Medium: Mahogany and white pine
Inscriptions: Signed on top board underside, in chalk: "Stephen[?]".
Dimensions: 78.2 × 88.9 × 57.2 cm (30 3/4 × 35 × 22 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Antiquarian Society through the Mrs. William O. Hunt, Jessie Spalding Landon, Mrs. Harold T. Martin, Adelaide Ryerson, and Mrs. H. Alex Vance funds
Reference Number: 1977.517
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/109437/manifest.json

Israel Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. 4 (New York: Highland House, 1974), 1012 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Classical Presence in American Art (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1978), 10, cat. 11 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, “American Furniture and the Baroque Style,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 73, no. 3 (1978): 8–9 (ill.).
“The Classical Presence in American Art,” The Magazine Antiques 114, no. 3 (Sept. 1978), 496–506 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture (Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1981), 20, cat. 28 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Pocketguide to The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1983), 39, cat. 55 (ill.).
Stiles T. Colwill, Expatriated Masterpieces of Maryland’s Cabinetmakers, in Museum and Library of Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Antiques Show and Sale, February 14–17, 1985, 64 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, et al., A Decade of Decorative Arts: The Antiquarian Society of The Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), 46, 60–62, cat. 43 (ill.).
Tom Armstrong, “The New Field–McCormick Galleries in the Art Institute of Chicago,” Magazine Antiques 134, 4 (October, 1988), 822–35.
Marvin D. Schwartz, “New Wing Presents Design, Colonial Period to Present,” Antiques and The Arts Weekly (December, 1988), 38–39 (ill.).
Lita Solis–Cohen, “Chicago Shows Off – Tastefully,” Maine Antiques Digest (December, 1988), 12B–15B (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture, 2nd ed., (Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1989), cat. 10 (ill.).
Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Early American Furniture (Crown, 1993), 209 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture, 3rd ed., (Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1997), (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 70–71, cat. 16 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, A Decade of Decorative Arts: The Antiquarian Society of The Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 12, 1986–Jan. 4, 1987, cat. 43.

By descent through the Broughton family, Marblehead and Salem, MA. Israel Sack, Incorporated, New York City, by 1974; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1977.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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