Antique Dressing Stools between £0 and £0
A low upholstered seat on carved, turned or X-crossed legs, made to sit at a dressing table and just as often used at a piano or by a fire.
What Are Antique Dressing Stools?
The heading covers small single-seat stools for a bedroom or salon, and it takes in piano, music, foot and window stools of much the same size and build. Titles often describe one object two or three ways at once, so "Piano Dressing Table Stool" or "Dressing Or Music Stool" is normal rather than confused.
The form you'll meet most often is a Victorian or early-20th-century upholstered stool on a walnut or mahogany frame. Walnut leads the timbers with 136 titles and mahogany follows with 115, rosewood is a clear third at 34, and oak trails at 18. Cabriole legs are the most named leg form; X-frame and cross-frame stools are a steady second shape.
Low stools became a standard bedroom item as fitted dressing tables and mirrors spread through middle-class houses, and the same seat served at a keyboard. That overlap shows in the archive: one in twelve listings is titled as a piano stool, and nine revolving and nine height-adjustable examples turn up, the seat rising as it turns on a central screw.
Dates run from 1750 to 1940, though 222 of 458 listings carry a clean year and the two commonest labels, "19th Century" and "Victorian", name no decade at all. Where decades are given they gather in 1860-1900 and again between the wars, with 42 listings dated to the 1920s and 31 to the 1930s, the later ones largely Art Deco in cloud, drum and figured-walnut forms. Queen Anne and Georgian style names appear too, often on work made decades or a century after the period they borrow from.
Where The Range Splits
Carving does most of the work. "Carved" appears in 49 titles and "carved walnut" in 17, and the upper reaches of the range are held by carved walnut and carved giltwood, including an X-frame window stool carved with hunting dog heads. The plainest sampled titles are undecorated mahogany and oak dressing table stools.
Timber sorts the middle from the bottom. Walnut and rosewood concentrate in the middle and upper range, while burr walnut, satinwood, birds-eye maple, satin birch and goncalo alves show up only in the upper half. Swedish stools, 11 titles of Gustavian, Empire and Biedermeier work with original paint, sit mostly near the top.
Numbers count. Pairs appear in 28 titles and nearly all of them sit in the upper half; a set of four early-19th-century dressing stools or window seats is the largest group in the archive. Revolving and rise-and-fall mechanisms recur across the middle rather than at either end, so the mechanism reads as a feature rather than a lift.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for dressing stools between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
19th Century is the period label used most on Sellingantiques for dressing stools, with Victorian next and the 1920s third.
The Antique Dressing Stools between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Dressing table stool
- A low seat made to sit at a dressing table. The phrase names about a fifth of listings in this category.
- Cabriole leg
- An S-curved leg that flares at the knee and tapers to the foot, named in 33 titles and the commonest leg form here.
- X-frame
- Legs crossing in an X beneath the seat instead of four uprights. Also written X-framed or cross frame, and it recurs throughout the samples.
- Rise and fall
- A height-adjustable seat, usually worked by a screw. Closely related to revolving, where the seat turns on a central screw and changes height as it goes.
- Buttoned
- Upholstery drawn down at intervals with covered buttons, giving a dimpled top. Deep buttoned describes the same treatment pulled harder.
- Curule
- A classical X-frame stool form, borrowed from Roman seating and appearing a handful of times in the samples.
Frequently Asked Questions
What wood are dressing stools usually made from?
Walnut and mahogany between them account for over half the titles, 136 and 115 respectively. Rosewood is a distinct third at 34, and oak is uncommon at 18.
The show woods widen at the upper end. Burr and figured walnut, satinwood, birds-eye maple, satin birch and goncalo alves appear in the upper half of the range, and ebonised and giltwood finishes turn up as well.
Is a dressing stool the same as a piano stool?
Frequently, yes. One in twelve listings is titled as a piano stool and one in fifty as a music or organ stool, and titles like "Regency Music or Dressing Stool" describe a single object two ways.
The overlap is practical. A low upholstered seat of this size works at a dressing table, at a keyboard, by a fire or under a window, and dealers title it for whichever use they expect.
How old are most of these stools?
The dated field runs 1750 to 1940. Where decades are given they cluster between 1860 and 1900, with the 1880s the fullest at 27 listings.
The interwar years are well represented too: 42 listings dated to the 1920s and 31 to the 1930s. Pre-1800 stools appear but are scarce.
Nearly a third of the record sits under "19th Century" or "Victorian", neither of which pins a decade.
Does a Queen Anne or Georgian title mean an early stool?
Not on its own. Many titles say "style", "revival" or "in the manner of", and those revival stools are dated 1880 to 1930 in the samples.
They form their own group, walnut with cabriole legs for the most part, and they sit in the middle of the range rather than at the top.
Why are pairs priced above single stools?
Pairs appear in 28 titles and almost every one sits in the upper half of the range. A set of four early-19th-century dressing stools or window seats turns up once, the largest group in the whole archive.
Swedish stools, 11 titles in all, are commonly offered in pairs and mostly at the upper end.
What unusual forms turn up in this category?
Beyond the standard upholstered stool, the archive holds a Chinese Qing dynasty carved huali stool doubling as a window seat, a grotto style stool and a coronation stool.
Carved decoration accounts for the rest of the oddities: a rams-head stool, and an X-frame window stool carved with hunting dog heads.
Around 44 dressing stools are listed a year on Sellingantiques, across 151 different dealers.