Dressing Table
1750–70
Medium
Mahogany and white pine
Dimensions
78.2 × 88.9 × 57.2 cm (30 3/4 × 35 × 22 1/2 in.)
Classification
table
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
109437
Art Historical Context
Step into the refined world of mid-18th-century American domestic life with this elegant dressing table, crafted between 1750 and 1770. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Arts the Americas department, this stands as a testament to the burgeoning craftsmanship of colonial cabinetmakers. Measuring 78.2 × 88.9 × 57.2 cm, it served as a personal vanity for grooming and dressing, a luxury item in prosperous households during the pre-Revolutionary era when European influences blended with local ingenuity. Constructed from rich mahogany—a premium imported wood from the West Indies, prized for ...