Painted corner washstand with hinged double-flap top, curved front with cupboard and three legs, the front painted with flowers in a basket

Painted corner washstand with hinged double-flap top, curved front with cupboard and three legs.

The construction of the washstand is quite crude. The bottom is made from two boards running from side to side. The front board is thicker than the back one and is wider in the middle than at either end. It is pieced out near the front on the underside with curved triangular blocks at each end and a curved lip in the middle to create the serpentine apron of the washstand front. The back board is thinner, wider and triangular in plan. The boards are joined to each other and the join is supported with glue blocks underneath and on top. The front ends of the front board and the back corner of the back board must be tenoned into the legs although this is not visible. These boards butt up against the side uprights of the washstand just above their bottom edge. The side uprights are each made from a single horinzontally-grained board cut with a rebate at each side on their outer face. The rebate slots into a groove cut in each leg. The legs are square in section and sit on the diagonal. The two front legs taper slightly near the bottom and splay outwards.

The curved front of the washstand is pieced together. There is a full-width top rail with three shorter rails beneath it – a long central section with two shorter sections either side of this. A rectangular upright either side of a central square door is crudely dovetailed up into the lower rails and butts up against a thin upright which is somehow joined to the inner face of each front leg. In the middle of the curved front is a square door made up of a single vertically grained board tenoned into horizontally grained rails at top and bottom. The door is fixed to the right rectangular upright with two metal hinges near the top and bottom of its right edge. Near its left edge there is a small metal handle connected to a small turning latch inside the door.

The top of the washstand is fitted with a hinged double-flap which unfolds to create an upright splashback. The upper flap is chamfered along its left edge underneath to accommodate a reciprocally chamfered edge on the outer face of the left upright. Two hinges join the upper flap to the left upright on their inner faces. The upper flap is also hinged along its right side joining it to a second flap which folds in underneath it when the top is closed and folds up and out at right angles with the upper flap when the top is fully open thereby providing the splashback.

Inside the washstand, immediately below the hinged flaps, is a shelf supported seemingly only by glue blocks from underneath. There are three circular holes cut out of this shelf, a large central hole and with a smaller hole on either side of it near the front corners of the shelf. These were presumably meant to hold a basin and two small dishes.

All the exterior surfaces of the washstand have been painted except the underside of the bottom board which has been stained reddish brown. A similar stain has been applied to the inside the cupboard and hinged flap top but the pierced shelf has been left untreated and is marked only by what look like water stains. The top surface of the hinged top, the front of the cupboard and the legs have been painted with decorative motifs. The side uprights and the outside face of the lower flap have been painted a pale greenish colour and the back leg a darker olive green. Much of the painted surface has now yellowed and cracked with age, possibly due in part to a varnish or coating applied on top of the painted decoration. The painted decoration appears in all cases to have been applied directly onto the wood, in a single layer, without any visible primer being applied first. The quality of the painting is good, but not very fine. It is possible that the work was done by an amateur rather than a professional.

The top face of the upper hinged flap has a white ground is now considerably darkened and the wood grain shows through. Following the curvature of the washstand front there is a central band of red and blue flowers, buds and green leaves. Either side of this there are two wavy lines, one red and one black, which act as a border. Outside the wavy lines there is another decorative border consisting of a thin green line or stem with short four-leaved green sprigs alternately issuing from each side of it. Beyond these borders near the very front and very back of the flap there are plain black painted lines (five at back, four at front), also following the curvature of the flap’s front edge.

The front of the washstand is painted to resemble panels. The top rails are divided into three oblong six-sided panels, the central panel is slightly larger than those on either side. The side panels have blue borders and a foliate garland painted on a white ground. The central panel is painted on a black ground and depicts a bow with a quiver of arrows and foliage set within a yellow border. Immediately beneath this the door is painted with a square blue border on a white ground with a lattice-work basket of flowers, foliage and fruit including pears, oranges, strawberries, grapes, plums and vine leaves. Either side of the door the upright rectangular panels are painted with a six-sided blue border on a white ground with a black oval lozenge in the middle. The lozenge is framed by arching blue foliate motifs and in the middle of the lozenge is a spray of flowers and leaves.

The front legs are painted on their front faces with black, yellow and white stripes.

Historical significance: A rare example of English painted furniture of the late 18th century.

A design for this form of corner wash-stand was published by Thomas Sheraton in his Cabinet-Maker's and Upholsterers' Drawing-Book in Four Parts, 3rd rev. ed. 1802, plate 42. The Drawing Book had originally been published in 42 bi-weekly installments from 1791 to 1793 and the plate is dated 1792. Other versions of the design were published on plate 10 of Sheraton's Cabinet-Dictionary, in 1803 and more angular versions appeared on plate 8 of Sheraton's Cabinet Encyclopedia in 1805. It was clearly a convenient and stylish answer to the problem of disguising a wash-stand when not in use and the fact that it appears in all three publications suggests that it was highly popular.

A similar wash-stand is shown in the Estimate Sketch Book of the firm of Gillow and Sons in 1793. That wash-stand had the same, splayed legs, which give great stability to what could otherwise be a rather spindly piece.

The double top folds our to provide a splash-back for the wash-stand when it was in use.

This corner washstand has a double folding top which when opened originally revealed a bowl for washing, the two top panels serving as a splash-back to protect the walls.

A similar stand is illustrated in a design from Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book, first published in 1792, where it is described as a 'Corner Bason Stand'. The slightly splayed front legs gave the washstand greater stability.

W.29-1919