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Lot Essay
The dressing/shaving-table has Doric chamfer-pillared legs with moulded capitals and plinth collars; while the doors are retained by the hinged top's moulded edge. The commode doors, which are embellished with mirror-veneered tablets of flame-figured mahogany in moulded frames with French-hollowed spandrels, are cut around a fixed escutcheon-plate that is antique stippled and carved with Roman acanthus in the French 'picturesque' manner. The commode interior is fitted with a commode compartment for a water-bottle, which is flanked by pairs of drawers. The top conceals a dressing-drawer, which is fretted for a china wash-basin and pair of soap-dishes, and is accompanied by a rising swing-mirror frame and flanking compartments, some of which are fitted with trays for bottles, etc.
Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) issued a related 'Shaving Table' pattern in the 3rd edition of his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1762 (pl. LIV), and this is likewise fitted with a 'Glass to rise out with a spring-catch...places for holding soap and other necessaries...razors...bottles'. It also has the same pattern of hollow-cornered handles. A table after this Chippendale pattern once at Mannington Hall, Norfolk is illustrated in R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964 (p. 546, fig. 17). Among related tables supplied by Chippendale was one invoiced in 1759 to William, 5th Earl of Dumfries for a 'neat mahogany shaving table wt. A folding top & a Looking glass to rise wt. A spring & rack, a cupboard and drawer etc... 4.0.0.'; and a rosewood one invoiced in 1765 to the 6th Earl of Coventry as a shaving table 'with a folding top and doors and a looking glass etc. complete...4.10.0.' (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, pp. 138 and 164 and vol. II fig. 460). Chippendale has also been credited with the manufacture of a related shaving-table, with the same patterned doors, at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, where it survives en suite with a clothes-press (see O. Brackett, Thomas Chippendale, London, n.d., pls. XXVII and LI).
Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) issued a related 'Shaving Table' pattern in the 3rd edition of his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1762 (pl. LIV), and this is likewise fitted with a 'Glass to rise out with a spring-catch...places for holding soap and other necessaries...razors...bottles'. It also has the same pattern of hollow-cornered handles. A table after this Chippendale pattern once at Mannington Hall, Norfolk is illustrated in R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964 (p. 546, fig. 17). Among related tables supplied by Chippendale was one invoiced in 1759 to William, 5th Earl of Dumfries for a 'neat mahogany shaving table wt. A folding top & a Looking glass to rise wt. A spring & rack, a cupboard and drawer etc... 4.0.0.'; and a rosewood one invoiced in 1765 to the 6th Earl of Coventry as a shaving table 'with a folding top and doors and a looking glass etc. complete...4.10.0.' (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, pp. 138 and 164 and vol. II fig. 460). Chippendale has also been credited with the manufacture of a related shaving-table, with the same patterned doors, at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, where it survives en suite with a clothes-press (see O. Brackett, Thomas Chippendale, London, n.d., pls. XXVII and LI).