Dressing Table
Title
Dressing Table
Date
1904
Maker
The Craftsman Workshops
Notes
The furniture shown in this article is the earliest mention of inlaid furniture available in a wood other than oak. According to the text: “The moveables are of the beautiful maple wood which is obtainable in a soft, satin finish, and the textiles are chosen in accordance with the exposure of the room.” I am grateful to David Cathers for pointing me towards this article and the images.
This dressing table, and especially the rounded pieces flanking the mirror, is reminiscent of the models illustrated in the June 1903 Craftsman made by J. S. Henry and seems indebted to this aesthetic. Indeed, the article “Recent English Models for Bedroom Furniture by J. S. Henry,” described a combination of wood choice, inlay, and finish that Stickley would later use. “The wood is maple, finished in a delicate silvery-toned gray: the markings peculiar to the wood being carefully retained and accentuated. The ornament consists in [sic] a deeply obscured floral motif, used as inlay and inserted at the center of the above-mentioned circle, wherever it occurs. The inlay is of dull brass and pewter combined with painting: a fine enameled green line running up the vertical parts of the piece and terminating in a leaf appearing on the brass, which is itself in leaf-form: the brass, in turn, being superposed on the pewter disk centered in the larger circle of the wood.”
Documented In
“A Craftsman House: Series of 1904, Number VI,” The Craftsman 6 (June 1904): 304.