A Chippendale Carved and Figured Walnut Dressing Table, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania or Baltimore, Maryland circa 1765

Philadelphia dressing tables were commonly made en suite with a matching high chest.  However, through the due course of time, these pieces typically have been separated and their associations have been lost.  Thankfully, this particular example’s matching high chest has been identified.  While its current whereabouts are unknown, it was in the Francis P. Garvan collection and offered for sale in the 1931 American Art Association Anderson Galleries Inc. sale of Selections from the Collection of Francis P. Garvan, no. 396.  It was also published in Wallace Nutting’s seminal publication Furniture Treasury, no. 369 and in the Girl Scout Loan Exhibition,. (New York: American Art Galleries, 1929), no. 651.

Both the high chest and dressing table share the common attribute of veneered drawer fronts.  Cabinetmakers chose this technique to produce the most visually dynamic case-fronts possible using brilliantly figured wood.  The Kaufman collection has an en suite high chest and dressing table with similar veneered drawer fronts and nearly identical applied shell carving on skirt (see J. Michael Flanigan, American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1986), pp. 86-89, nos. 29, 30).