A woman's dressing table on slender, cabriole legs, with a rectangular top with outset, rounded corners, and a low stretcher panel with in-curved edges. The table is ornamented overall with veneers of rosewood framing reserves of harewood inlaid with arabesques, urns and other neo-classical motifs in various woods. The main drawer of the table pulls forward to reveal a central mirror (that can be raised on an easel) flanked by hinged compartments, the lids of which are inlaid on the inside with the heads of a man and a woman (left and right), both in Middle Eastern costume. When the main drawer is pulled forward, the top of the table automatically moves backwards.

A woman's dressing table on slender, cabriole legs, with a rectangular top with outset, rounded corners, and a low stretcher panel with in-curved edges. The table is ornamented overall with veneers of rosewood framing reserves of harewood inlaid with arabesques, urns and other neo-classical motifs in various woods, some stained green. The top shows a central oval inlaid with satinwood, flanked by urns. An outer band of rosewood is inlaid with flower heads in a lighter wood (box or holly). The detail of the marquetry is engraved and filled with black mastic. The main drawer of the table pulls forward to reveal a central mirror (that can be raised on an easel) flanked by hinged compartments, the lids of which are inlaid on the inside with the heads of a man and a woman (left and right), both in Middle Eastern costume. The mirror can be reversed, its baize-covered back forming a writing surface. When the main drawer is pulled forward, the top of the table automatically moves backwards. The low stretcher shows a central oval with a satinwood ground, inlaid with an empty quiver and a hunting horn. The remarkably thin legs are veneered in a tropical hardwood (perhaps bois satiné), the grain set diagonally.

Given by Mrs H.H. Mulliner

This table was given to the Museum in 1924 by Mrs H.H. Mulliner, widow of the well-known connoisseur and auther H. H. Mulliner, who was director of the well known decorating company Lenygon and Morant and author of The Decorative Arts in England 1660-1780, published in 1923. He illustrated this piece as fig. 22. It is possible that he also used it as a model for pieces made by Lenygon and Morant for their clients as at least one other version of this is known, although it is impossible to tell from photographs the likely date that it was made, and it may simply be another version of the table made in the late 18th century.

Museum negative 74591 shows this on display in Gallery 40 in 1936 as part of a display of Georgian furniture.

Although the elegant cabriole legs of this dressing table derive from the Rococo style of the mid-18th century, its decoration with inlay of arabesques is in the more fashionable neo-classical style of the 1770s. The form of the table is based on a design developed in France in the 1760s in the workshop of the royal cabinet maker Jean-François Oeben (c. 1715-1763). He was noted for his mechanical skills and invented this form of table, with large springs set inside, so that the top of the table moves back smoothly as the large drawer is pulled forward to give access to the mirror and the compartments to either side of it.

W.89:1 to:2-1924