Dressing Table

Item

Title

Dressing Table

Creator

Craftsman Workshops

Date

1915-17 (ca.)

Dimensions

29 1/2 x 36 x 19 inches

Object No.

L2012.11.2a-b

Credit line

Drs. Cynthia and Timothy McGinn

Description

Part of a larger suite of Chromewald furniture that Stickley made for his daughter Mildred—including a bed, nightstand, dresser, and bench—this dressing table, like the rest of the pieces, features distinctive sausage turning that was common in eighteenth-century furniture, particular from rural areas. Despite the aversion to historicism he had professed in The Craftsman for the past fifteen years, the Chromewald line took a sharp turn towards the Colonial revival aesthetic.

According to Mary Fanton Roberts, Stickley made his purpose clear: “I want furniture so excellent, so truly refined, so desirable that it can set a standard in house furnishing; that if placed in a room where things are poor and ugly and useless, it will so proclaim them; that will as a matter of fact force a standard, that must bring about greater refinement and beauty in home decoration.”