Louis XV Revival Carved Dressing Table, Cherub Mirror, c. 1890–1910

The Piece

An American dressing table in the Louis XV revival taste, the French style piece that the better factories built alongside their golden oak lines for the bedroom that wanted something lighter and more feminine. The mirror is the first thing anyone sees. A tall shaped plate with a beveled edge sits in a molded serpentine frame that swells at the shoulders and narrows to the base, and the crest above it is carved as a cartouche holding a cherub's face wreathed in acanthus, with pierced C-scrolls and a leaf finial at the top. The mirror pivots on carved uprights, each finished with a carved acanthus finial and a scrolled foot that rests on the back rail of the table.

The table itself, carved from oak under the same honey finish as the mirror frame, is a kneehole form with a serpentine front and a bombé profile, the drawer fronts swelling out and under in the French manner. The top is veneered in a dense, dark figured burl with a molded edge that follows the serpentine outline. Two short drawers at either side flank a center drawer carved across its face with scrolling acanthus around a cartouche, and below it an arched kneehole apron carries a carved shell and leafage. All five drawers wear cast brass bail pulls on cartouche backplates. The case rises on four cabriole legs with carved acanthus at the knees and scrolled toes, and it rolls on casters.

The piece is in remarkably clean condition. The finish is even and original in character, the burl top is intact, the mirror plate is bright, the carving is complete and the hardware is all present. There is none of the grime, water staining or pest damage that furniture of this age picks up in a garage or barn. It is larger in scale than the run of factory dressing tables of the form and has plainly spent its life indoors in a well kept house. Its companion, a king-size bed in the same oak with the identical cherub cartouche on its headboard, arrived with it and is offered separately.

History & Provenance

Between roughly 1890 and 1910 the big American factories in Grand Rapids and elsewhere built French style bedroom suites in the Louis XV manner for buyers who found golden oak too heavy. The pieces borrowed the vocabulary of eighteenth century Paris, the cabriole leg, the bombé case, the serpentine outline, the shell and acanthus and the cherub cartouche, and executed it in American hardwoods with burl veneers and cast brass hardware. A dressing table with a tall pivoting mirror was the heart of these suites, and the best of them, like this one, were carved rather than merely molded, with real depth to the crest and the drawer fronts.

No maker's stamp, paper label or stencil has been found on this piece, and it is offered as an unattributed American factory dressing table. The dating rests on construction and materials rather than style alone: the burl veneer, the cast brass hardware, the beveled plate mirror, the casters and the carving method are all consistent with manufacture between 1890 and 1910, and nothing about the piece suggests a later reproduction. It arrived with its matching bed and with several pieces of carved golden oak from the same period, each of which is offered separately.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

A dressing table with a tall mirror is the one antique bedroom piece that earns its place every single morning. The kneehole takes a stool or a small chair, the five drawers hold the whole dressing kit, and the pivoting mirror adjusts to whoever sits down. The cherub crest and the burl top make it a focal point rather than a utility, and the honey finish is light enough to sit in a pale, airy bedroom or a dressing room without weighing it down. It also works as a writing table or an entry console wherever a mirror is wanted, and with its matching bed it makes a complete French style suite that takes a king mattress. For a designer client it is the complete, carved, unrestored French style dressing table of the period, far rarer in this condition than the oak suites it was sold beside.