A mahogany dressing table with white marble top, surmounted by an integral oval mirror. The dressing table is raised on two lyre-shaped supports joined by a turned stretcher and is set with gilt-brass mounts.

A mahogany dressing table with white marble top, surmounted by an integral oval mirror. The dressing table is raised on two lyre-shaped supports joined by a turned stretcher and is set with gilt-brass mounts.
The dressing table is made of mahogany and mahogany veneered on a carcase of beech, oak and poplar. The two supports are of square section with tapering profiles and are veneered with mahogany. They are raised on small brass castors. The stretcher tapers toward each end, the centre turned with opposed decorative urn shapes. The body of the dressing table is set with a single wide drawer below a half-round moulding, the area above the moulding set with shallow drawers, a small writing drawer to the right. The flanking areas above the legs are set with lacquered brass wreaths. The centre of the main drawer is set with a symmetrical lacquered-brass mount with formalised foliage. The table top is of white marble, inset within a framing moulding. The mirror support is set to the back of the table top, and takes the form of a low plinth with scrolled end, supporting a wide U-shaped frame, with scrolled ends, to which the mirror is attached with lacquered-brass screws. The front of the plinth and the ends of the plinth and the arms are set with rosettes in lacquered-brass. The mirror frame is flat-faced, veneered with mahogany and set with 8 rosettes in lacquered brass.

The Bettine, Lady Abingdon Collection. Bequeathed by Mrs T. R. P. Hole

This came to the Museum with a large number of pieces of French furniture, ceramics, metalwork, books and other decorative arts, from the Restauration period and earlier, acquired in Paris by Charles Stuart (from 1828 1st Lord Stuart de Rothesay) (1779--1845). The Empire furnishings were probably purchased during his first period as ambassador to Paris (1815--1824), the Restauration and earlier furnishings during his second embassy (1828--30). The Empire furnishings may have been intended for a London house. He acquired 4 Carlton House Terrace, where improvements were carried out from 1827 to 1831, and he moved in in 1834. Older furnishings were more probably purchased for his country house, Highcliffe Castle, Hampshire (now Dorset), which was remodelled and enlarged in the most ambitious Gothic style from 1830 to 1834, with some work continuing throughout the 1830s. In 1841 the house in Carlton House Terrace was let, and the family moved their London residence to Whitehall Yard. It was possibly at that time -- or in 1845, the date of Lord Stuart de Rothesay's death -- that the Empire furnishings were moved to Highcliffe. Lord Stuart de Rothesay's collections were inherited in 1867 by his younger daughter Louisa, Lady Waterford (1818--1891), who maintained Highcliffe Castle. She left the house and its collections to her distant cousin Major-General Edward Stuart Wortley (1857-1934). However, it is just possible that the present table was not acquired until after Lord Stuart de Rothesay's death, if the label on the main drawer refers to the French Second Republic (1848--52); but the meaning of this label is very unclear. The first certain record of the table at Highcliffe is the label referring to 'Colonel Wortley'. In 1901 the Honourable Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley (1857-1934), who had conducted a distinguished military career from 1877, was appointed to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served as military attaché in Paris until 1904. It is possible that he acquired the table at this time, perhaps from the embassy. The label under the main drawer appears to relate to Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby, who was ambassador from 1846-1852, covering the period of the 2nd Republic.

When General Wortley's younger daughter Elizabeth ('Bettine') married Montagu Bertie, 8th Earl of Abingdon, in 1928, he bought the castle and its contents from his father-in-law. The Abingdons sold Highcliffe and most of its contents in 1949, but retained the present group of furniture and some other pieces. After her husband's death in 1963, Lady Abingdon lived for much of the time with her close friends Mr and Mrs Tahu Hole, to whom she bequeathed all her personal possessions on her death in 1978. Tahu Hole died in 1985, and a year later his widow Joyce approached the Museum and offered the collection as a bequest. She died in December 1986, and in accordance with her will the Museum chose those items that it wished to add to its collections. Other items from the collection were sold to benefit the Museum, and the proceeds added to the funds bequeathed. See Registered File 86/1100.

Historical significance: The dressing-table with attached glass was a form developed in the early years of the 19th century. The Paris cabinet-maker Jacob-Desmalter made a particularly spectacular one for the Empress Josephine at the Tuileries Palace in 1805, and in 1811 he supplied another of the same design to the Empress Marie-Louise at Compiègne. One of the grandest examples of the form with X-supports, used here, is a dressing-table made by François Remond in about 1823 for the Duchesse de Berry (who was a friend of the Stuarts).

A similar but smaller dressing-table was included in the 1949 sale from Highcliffe Castle (lot 596). Many other pieces of this date and quality also appeared in the sale, suggesting that Sir Charles Stuart may have bought a number of supplementary useful pieces (such as this one and the commode, W.23-1987), for use in the Embassy in Paris. (But as noted above, under 'Object History', it is possible that the present piece was acquired later.)

This type of dressing-table, with looking-glass attached, was a form developed in the early years of the 19th century, and some exceptionally grand examples were made by Parisian cabinet-makers, for example Jacob-Desmalter & Cie and François Rémond. This one probably belongs to a group purchased in Paris by Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who served twice as British ambassador there (1815-1824 and 1828-1830). Stuart de Rothesay acquired a large quantity of French Empire furniture, which he later brought back to Britain to use both in his London home and Highcliffe Castle, the house in Dorset that he built in 1830-1834.

W.17:1 to 3-1987