What wood are French dressing tables usually made from?

Walnut leads, in roughly a fifth of titles, which makes it the default timber for the category. Painted finishes, mahogany and oak each account for around one title in ten. Exotic veneers show up sparingly. Amboyna, kingwood, tulipwood, satinwood, burr elm and burr yew each appear only a handful of times across the archive, and they gather at the upper end of the range.

How old is a typical French dressing table?

Later than the styles suggest. The dated field runs from 1800 to 1930, and the 1920s is the biggest single decade, followed by an unspecific '19th Century' that dealers use when they don't want to commit. Nineteenth-century decades are thinner and scattered, with the 1880s the strongest of them. Empire and Louis-revival pieces are present but uncommon. The earliest clean year in the archive is 1800, on a campaign dressing table, the only campaign example in the sample.

Why do titles say Louis XV or Empire on later tables?

Those are style names, not dates. The 19th and early 20th centuries produced revival furniture in quantity, and dealers title the piece by the style it copies. Empire appears in twenty titles and Louis in fourteen. Both groups sit above the middle of the range, and the Empire pieces are typically mahogany with ormolu mounts.

A French toilet table with a hinged or sliding top concealing a fitted interior, with a mirror and compartments beneath. Four appear in the archive under that name. A coiffeuse is the dressing table for hairdressing, and one turns up in the sample. Everything else in the category is titled in English.

Do these tables come with marble tops?

Some do. Marble appears in about one title in twelve, laid as a separate slab over the carcase, and it turns up on carved oak examples as often as anywhere. Dealers phrase it inconsistently, as 'marble top', 'marble topped' or simply 'marble'.

How often do French dressing tables come up for sale?

About twenty-two a year come to market on Sellingantiques, so it's a steady rather than a busy category. Sixty-five different dealers have listed one, which means no single dealer or stock style defines what turns up.

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Antique French Dressing Tables

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A French dressing table is a bedroom table with a mirror and drawers for combs, cosmetics and jewellery, made in quantity from the early 19th century into the 1930s.