{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O9253"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9253/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN0403/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN0403/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AN0403","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AN0405","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AN0404","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB2088","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB2176","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY3887","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O9253/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O9253","accessionNumber":"W.55:1 to 22-1928","objectType":"Bureau dressing table","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>This was a dual purpose piece of furniture, combining the functions of a writing and a dressing table.  This is a particularly high-quality example with marquetry decoration, or coloured wood veneers. The top drawer is fitted as a dressing table with boxes and a folding mirror, and there are three drawers in the pedestals on either side.<br><br><b>Places</b><br>Although there is no documentary proof, this bureau dressing table was almost certainly one of a large group of furniture made by the cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) for Harewood House, West Yorkshire. The shape is similar to designs in his book <i>The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director</i>, and the marquetry is comparable to other furniture he made for Harewood. This commission, from Edwin Lascelles, was the most notable of Chippendale's career. He supplied over £10,000 worth of furniture in the Neo-classical style to furnish interiors designed by the architect Robert Adam (1728-1792).<br><br><b>People</b><br>The Lascelles family had made their money through Barbados sugar plantations. As soon as he inherited, Edwin Lascelles commissioned John Carr (1723-1807) of York to design the house, with alterations by Robert Adam (1728-1792). It was newly built when Chippendale supplied the furniture in the 1770s. There is no record of which room this bureau dressing table was made for.","physicalDescription":"Pedestal dressing-table of pine, oak and mahogany, veneered with rosewood and decorated with marquetry of various woods. On the centre of the top there is an oval containing a fan ornament surrounding a large patera of similar form in sycamore. The borders are of tulip wood. The top drawer forming the frieze is decorated with circular paterae and swags of husks, this ornament continues around the sides. It is fitted with boxes, compartments for dressing and a glass in the centre supported on an adjustable strutt. Below are two pedestal cupboards each enclosing three drawers. The doors are inlaid with husks, paterae and a classical vase within an arched compartment with honeysuckle ornament in the spandrels. In the centre there is a recessed cupboard. The door is decorated with a large scalloped patera edged with husks. Inside the cupboard there is a shelf. At the base of the dresser, there is a cavetto moulding and four shaped bracket feet in front and two behind, which are fitted with large wooden castors on the inner side.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Chippendale, Haig and Co.","id":"A1378"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"rosewood","id":"AAT12424"},{"text":"pine","id":"AAT12620"},{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"},{"text":"mahogany","id":"AAT12221"},{"text":"sycamore","id":"AAT12357"},{"text":"tulip-wood","id":"AAT12469"}],"techniques":[{"text":"cabinet-making","id":"AAT53607"},{"text":"veneering","id":"AAT53878"},{"text":"marquetry","id":"AAT53853"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Marquetry of rosewood, tulipwood and other woods, on a carcase of pine, oak and mahogany","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"British 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by Mr Frank Partridge through The Art Fund","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"79","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"125.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"63.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions from Registered Description (should be checked).","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"It is thought that this table was produced by Chippendale, Haig and Co. for Harewood House, West Yorkshire. The bills are incomplete and like some other pieces from the house this dressing-table is unidentifiable and we do not know for which room it was supplied.\n\nHistorical significance: This type of furniture, termed a 'Buroe Dressing Table' is illustrated in Chippendale's <font -u>Director</font> and other publications of the period.\r\nThe Harewood commission was the most valuable of Chippendale's career. He probably supplied more than £10,000 worth of furniture to Edwin Lascelles between 1767 and 1778, including some of the most luxurious furniture produced by the firm.\n\nIt’s not certain which country of origin the mahogany used in this dressing table was sourced; however, over 90% of the mahogany imported into England between 1722 to 1763 came from Jamaica (Swietenia mahagoni) with most of the remainder sourced from the Bahamas. Mahogany was a plantation product; its extraction closely linked to the transatlantic slave trade and the expansion of the sugar trade and its plantations in the Caribbean. Felling mahogany was gruelling work, often carried out by enslaved male labourers. Large-scale logging was typically contracted to independent woodcutters who relied on enslaved labour gangs, occasionally supplemented by enslaved plantation workers (Anderson, Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America, 2012, p.71). A distinctive feature of mahogany was its rich red hue, which was so popular, that ready-made paints in ‘mahogany colour’ were sold as early as 1734 (Bowett, Woods in British Furniture-Making 1400-1900, p.123). Mahogany furniture appears frequently in bills, inventories, and advertisements from the early 1720s onward, reflecting its growing popularity and status.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bureau dressing table of pine, oak and mahogany, veneered in rosewood with marquetry decoration of roundels and urns.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ramond, Pierre. <i>La Marqueterie</i>. Paris, Editions Vial, 1981, p. 48\r\nRamond, Pierre.  Marquetry.  1st ed. published in English by Taunton Press, 1989.  Revised edition, Paris, Editions Vial, 2002, p. 48\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Tomlin, Maurice, <i>Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture </i>(London: HMSO for the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1972), cat. no. U/10. p. 177."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL ACQUISITIONS DURING THE YEAR 1928, ILLUSTRATED (LONDON: PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION, 1929), pp.84-5\n\r\nIn the course of the year the collection of English furniture and woodwork received some notable additions which greatly enhanced its representative character: among them being several gifts of outstanding importance….\n\r\nA MARQUETRY DRESSING-TABLE: AND A GILT SIDE­TABLE FROM CARLTON HOUSE. Early in George Ill's reign marquetry, which had been out of fashion for half a century, was revived by a gifted school of craftsmen. The technical difficulties of inlaying patterns in coloured woods on a veneer ground\" had been mastered under Charles II, but in Georgian marquetry a fuller palette was obtained by the importation of new exotic species, while staining and shading secured delicate gradations of colour. French influence at first predominated, and on the doors of commodes vases of polychromatic flowers were rendered in a naturalistic style. But marquetry soon changed its character in sympathy with the classical reaction, which imposed severe and graceful forms on furniture. From about 1770 inlaid ornament was based on \"the Antique,\" favourite motives being paterae, trails of husks, acanthus sprays, and honeysuckle. The decoration of a pedestal dressing table given to the Museum by Mr. Frank Partridge through the National Art-Collections Fund (Plate 51) is reminiscent of the well-known furniture at Harewood House, which was made by Chippendale and Haig about 1770-75. It is similar in form to the library tables of the period, the top drawer being fitted with an adjustable glass, small compartments, and boxes for the toilet. Furniture of this type in marquetry is rare and the gift of this table was therefore particularly welcome."}],"production":"The dressing-table has been linked to the furniture provided for Harewood House by Chippendale, Haig & Co. because it so similar in style to documented pieces from the house.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"paterae (motifs)","id":"AAT10264"},{"text":"vases","id":"AAT132254"},{"text":"festoons","id":"AAT167386"},{"text":"husks (motifs)","id":"AAT165223"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Chippendale probably supplied more than £10,000 worth of furniture to Harewood between 1767and 1777, including luxurious marquetry furniture. The bills are incomplete so we do not know for which room this piece was supplied. The original colour is now greatly faded.","date":{"text":"1996","earliest":"1996-01-01","latest":"1996-12-31"}},{"text":"British Galleries:\r\nChippendale's reputation had been established by the quality of his carved furniture in the Rococo style. In the 1760s, Chippendale was quick to develop a new, Neo-classical decoration, using marquetry or paint.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["W.55:1-1928","W.55:2-1928","W.55:3-1928","W.55:4-1928","W.55:5-1928","W.55:6-1928","W.55:7-1928","W.55:8-1928","W.55:9-1928","W.55:10-1928","W.55:11-1928","W.55:12-1928","W.55:13-1928","W.55:14-1928","W.55:15-1928","W.55:16-1928","W.55:17-1928","W.55:18-1928","W.55:19-1928","W.55:20-1928","W.55:21-1928","W.55:22-1928"],"accessionNumberNum":"55","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1928,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Bureau dressing table","Drawer [1]","Tray [1]","Lid [1]","Rack [1]","Pin cushion","Rack [2]","Tray [2]","Lid [2]","Bottle [1]","Bottle [2]","Stopper [1]","Bottle [3]","Stopper [2]","Shelf","Drawer [2]","Drawer [3]","Drawer [4]","Drawer [5]","Drawer [6]","Drawer [7]","key"],"assets":["2019LN0520","2019LN0521","2019LN1084","2019LN1085","2019LN1329","2019LN1330","2019LN1513","2019LN1514","2019LN1699","2019LN1702","2019LN1955","2019LN2454","2019LN2693","2019LN2934","2019LN3177","2019LN3178","2019LN3179","2019LN6193","2019LN6192","2019LN6191","2019LR1995","2019LR1993","2019LR1992","2019LR1991","2019LR1266","2019LR1264","2019LR0198","2019LP9494","2019LP9489","2019LP7041","2019LP6097","2019LP6096","2019LP5765","2019LP5565","2019LP5561","2019LP5304","2019LP4998","2019LP1458","2019LR6377","2019LR5727","2019LR5633","2019LR4964","2019LR3967","2019LU8938","2019LU6798","2019LU4086","2019LU3137","2019LU3136","2019LU2140","2019LU0878","2019LU0152","2019LV7691","2019LV7071","2019LV7070","2019LV7024","2019LV6983","2019LV6607","2019LV6457","2019LV6238","2019LV5947","2019LV5861","2019LV5319","2019LV4848","2019LV4847"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-15","recordCreationDate":"1998-09-29","availableToBook":false}}