Dressing table

Unknown

1747 · Japanned maple, white pine · The American Wing

Both this dressing table and its matching high chest (10.125.58) are remarkably well preserved, with their tortoiseshell backgrounds—created by streaking lampblack onto a vermillion ground. The painted decoration, which includes a fantastical dragon and winged swans pulling a chariot with a shell-shaped back, is noticeably different from that on the suite of japanned furniture owned by the Pickman family of Salem (40.37.1, .2, .4).

Artist

Unknown

Date

1747

Medium

Japanned maple, white pine

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1909