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Dressing table

about 1760–70
Object PlacePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Medium/TechniqueSan Domingo mahogany, mahogany veneer, yellow-poplar, cedar
DimensionsOverall: 81 x 51.8 x 92.1 cm (31 7/8 x 20 3/8 x 36 1/4 in.)
Credit LineThe M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts
Accession number39.150
On View
On view
ClassificationsFurniture
Collections
Description
Figural motifs, such as the delicate swan carved on the central drawer of this Philadelphia dressing table, are rare on American furniture. This table belongs to a small group of Philadelphia Rococo pieces embellished with decoration thought to represent various scenes from Aesop's Fables. The popularity of Aesop's tales soared in the mid-eighteenth century. At least three editions were published by Philadelphia printers in 1777 alone, and illustrations from the stories were widely copied by English and American craftsmen on textiles, architectural carving, and other media. The irony that these moralistic stories warning against greed, vanity, and other vices were used to embellish expensive luxury goods did not seem to bother eighteenth-century consumers.Although several furniture design books incorporated Aesop's fables, the carving on the group to which this table belongs relates directly to illustrations in Thomas Johnson's One Hundred and Fifty New Designs, published in London in 1761. Johnson mixed imagery from Aesop's stories with chinoiserie and French Rococo motifs. Examples of each ornament the MFA's dressing table: chinoiserie fretwork in the cornice molding, flowering vines on the quarter columns, and a playful string of rocaille C-scrolls outlining the skirt. The focal point, however, is the central drawer, where the majestic swan swims above dripping rocaille rock forms amid a dizzying arrangement of C-scrolls and chinoiserie columns.This text was adapted from Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (Boston, 2006) available at www.mfashop.com/mfa-publications.html.
Figural motifs-such as the delicate swan carved on the central drawer of this table-are rare in American Rococo furniture. The table belongs to a small group of Philadelphia pieces embellished with scenes thought to be from Aesop's "Fables." The popularity of Aesop's moralistic tales soared in the mid-eighteenth century, and illustrations from the stories were widely copied by English and American craftsmen on textiles, architectural elements, and other media. The fact that these tales, which warned against greed and vanity, decorated expensive luxury goods was an irony that may have appealed to, or been lost on, eighteenth-century consumers.
Provenance"The M. and M. Karolik Collection of 18th century American Arts." Purchased by Winthrop Sargent (1753--1820) probably while living in Philadelphia after the Revolution; to his son George Washington Sargent (d. 1864); to his daughter Jane Percy Sargent, who later married William Butler Duncan; to her daughter Mary Duncan who later married Paul Dana; to her son (?) William Butler Duncan Dana, husband of the last owner (by tradition, as told by Mrs. William Butler Duncan Dana, date unknown); purchased by the Karoliks, 19XX.