A toilet mirror on a desk-shaped base (also known as a dressing glass or mirror, or a union suite). A drawer fitted with equipment for dressing is set below a slope-fronted compartment fitted with pigeonholes and small drawers in the manner of a desk. The whole is decorated in red japanning, with details in gold and black, the japanned decoration on a ground of beech, in places veneered on a carcase of oak and softwood

A toilet mirror on a desk-shaped base, with a drawer fitted with equipment for dressing, below a slope-fronted compartment fitted with pigeonholes and small drawers in the manner of a desk (also known as a dressing mirror or glass, or a union suite). The whole is decorated in red japan, with details in gold and black, the japanned decoration on a ground of beech, in places veneered on a carcase of oak and softwood.
Design
The base is raised on four low, plinth feet. The front curves forward on its lower edge and this shaping is followed in the front of the drawer. To either side of the drawer are set lopers, to support the fall front when open (although it is now no wise to open it to its full extent because of a problem with the hinges). On top of the desk section are set two rectangular-sectioned tall supports for the mirror. These are raked slightly backwards and are now reinforced by triangular-sectioned blocks glued to the carcase just behind them (these are additions and are not japanned). The uprights have turned finials, both replacements but not a pair, and these are not japanned.
The mirror, within a moulded frame, is rectangular, with moulded top corners and a serpentine top edge. The glass is surmounted by a flat cresting panel with a shaped, scrolled top edge.
The decoration of the piece is on a red-japanned ground, with chinoiserie motifs in gold with black line highlights. On the main panels (the slope front, horizontal top, lower drawer front, sides and mirror cresting) the ornament is outlined with bands of silvering and the decoration is partly raised. On other areas the ornament consists of bands of repeated formal motifs painted in gold powder, but with no raised areas (e.g. the fronts of the mirror supports, the edges of the main carcase and the frames of the decorated areas). In some places such decoration is confined to the corners of frames only. The top of the cresting is painted in gold with fictive drapery.
The brass lockplates on the slope front and the drawer are oval, with three lobes along the top edge. The drawer, lopers and the pivot points of the mirror shows small, brass ring handles (one on the Proper Right loper is missing).
The dressing drawer is divided into 17 compartments of different sizes. The divisions are in softwood, with dished top edges, to allow contents to be picked up easily. The interior is japanned red with gilt-metal sprinkled decoration. The drawer is fitted with two large boxes (approximately 10 x15 cm), two medium boxes (approximately 7.5 x 7.5 cm) and two small boxes (approximately 5 x 5 cm); two clothes brushes with black bristles (each approximately 7 x 5 cm); two whisk brushes with strong white bristles (one 14 cm and one 12 cm long – the latter probably a replacement, with slightly different japanned decoration); one rectangular pincushion on a low stand with Chinese form bracket feet (13.5 x 8.5 cm) (the covering of the tow padding is missing). All these items show gilded chinoiserie motifs on a red japanned ground.
The interior of the desk compartment shows the red-japanned decoration in the best state. The prospect or nest of drawers shows a central door between two fluted columns. To either side is a bank of three drawers, the uppermost on each side approximately 50% wider than the lower and running over two pigeonholes below. The door and drawers, the inside of the slope and the panel immediately in front of the drawers, are decorated with chinoiserie figures, plants etc, within a silvered band. The drawers are fitted with small brass knobs (possibly replacements). The hinges of the slope are probably replaced.
The back is undecorated, painted red and black.
Construction
The jointing of the main carcase is not possible to ascertain, because the main surfaces for japanning are veneered in beech, over a softwood ground. This provides a smoother surface for the japanning. The carcase is probably of dove-tail construction. The base of the whole piece is in oak, with the grain running laterally. The drawers are of softwood but the front of the main drawer is faced with beech, in contrast to the smaller, inner drawers, which are japanned directly onto the softwood. All the drawers are of dovetailed construction, with bottom boards nailed up.

The mirror was purchased from Messrs A. Johnson & Sons, 85 Wigmore Street, London W. in 1904 for £12 (see Registered Papers 86569/1904). It was thought at the time to be Dutch, although no reason was given for this identification and the mirror was published as English in Ralph Edwards ed. Dictionary of English Furniture, 2nd ed. (London: Country Life, 1954), vol. II, p. 361, fig. 12, though without detailed discussion. At the time of acquisition it was already described as 'Rubbed;flaked; scratched; worn and wormeaten', although photographs show that it was less damaged than it now is.

Monika Kopplin, in European Lacquer. Selected Works from the Museum für Lackkunst, Münster (2010) discusses this form of furniture on pp. 79-81 and gives a clear, short account of the the type, which, by implication, she sees as an English form. She notes that many were made in England, both for the home trade and for export to Europe (in Venice they were known as 'mobile da toletta' and the English forms were copied exactly). She points out that the formal repeating motifs were often based on Chinese motifs, although their traditional symbolism was little understood. The Chinese coin repeat pattern on the edges of the slope (Chinese: qiuwen) is one such borrowing.

For many richer people in the eighteenth century, the procedure of applying make-up and having their hair dressed was part of a leisurely daily timetable that required luxury equipment. Dressing glasses might be simple glasses on an easel support but at the end of the 17th century a form developed that placed the mirror on a low box made in the form of a small bureau or desk. The lower drawer was fitted with boxes for patches and small accessories, and with clothes brushes. The sloping front opened to provide a small writing surface and a miniature bureau, with small drawers and pigeon-holes for the most private of papers. 'Japanning', or the imitation of Asian lacquer, was particularly favoured for such items. In their first state (before the japanning faded and dulled) these would have been bright and shining treasures for the most personal of spaces.

1067:1to26-1904