What's the difference between a toilet and a cheval mirror?

A toilet mirror is the small one that stands on a table or chest, usually with a drawered box beneath the uprights. A cheval stands on the floor on its own frame. Both swing on side supports. The words 'dressing', 'toilet', 'vanity' and 'swing' get used interchangeably in titles, and many pieces are listed under two of them at once.

Which wood is most common?

Mahogany, by a wide margin. It appears in 517 titles, with walnut in 132 and oak in 42. Above those sit the figured and exotic timbers: satinwood, burr walnut, amboyna, kingwood, rosewood, padouk and flame mahogany. Those are the frames that reach the upper half of the range.

How old are most of these?

The dated field runs 1700 to 1960. Only 431 of 1,192 listings give a clean year, so most are placed by era instead. 19th Century is the biggest single label at 208, then Georgian, Victorian, Regency, 18th Century and Edwardian. Where decades appear they cluster in the 1860s and 1880s, with a second group in the 1920s.

Are dressing mirrors usually signed or stamped?

No. The category is effectively unsigned, and a labelled or stamped piece is unusual. Gillows is the only name that carries across more than a couple of dealers, and it comes up as an attribution more often than anything else.

How many turn up for sale?

About 116 a year on Sellingantiques, and 252 different dealers have offered one. That spread tells you it's a form almost every general furniture dealer handles rather than a specialism.

Do unusual forms ever appear?

They do, once or twice each. Campaign and travelling shaving mirrors, a bootmaker's mirror, gents' outfitters and shop dressing mirrors, a marble-based one, and mirrors combined with a bureau or a jewellery cabinet. Origins get odd at the edges too: a Chinese Qing hardwood and mother-of-pearl cheval, a Swedish birch vanity mirror, a Black Forest carved lime wood table mirror.