18th Century and Earlier Vanities

A very fine 18th century Louis XVI Geometrical marquetry dressing table or coiffeuse. The rectangular top divided into three framed parquetry ...

Excellent French Louis XV Marquetry Dressing Table, so-called "Perruquiere", Manner of Pierre Roussel (1723-1782) The top of shaped outline, the front is recurved with a small kneehole, fitted with a leather covered pull out writing slide and four drawers. The sides are slightly bowed. The top divided in three sections, the outer two hingeing outwards to reveal box sections, once used for storing toilet articles or wigs (french: perruque, therefore this type of funiture is called "perruquière"), the central one lifts up on a hinge to reveal an adjustable mirror. The dressing table is supported on square-sectioned cabriole legs, the feet with gilt-bronze sabots. Being decorated on all sides, it is possible to place the dressing table or perruquière in the center of a room. Dressing tables were essential pieces of furniture for fashionable 18th century ladies who spent much time at their toilette preparing for an endless series of entertainments and social appearances. A series of drawers, which could be secured by lock and key, rendered such furniture appropriate for storing personal effects and, especially, private correspondence. The well proportioned curvy shape as well as the excellent marquetry decoration of the Louis XV dressing table...

Small elegant dressing table / furniture made of mahogany. Table top can open under which décor with small compartments and a mirror. Front with 2 drawers. Fluted legs with cutouts. ...

18th Century French Transition Louis XVI Marquetry Vanity or Coiffeuse Rectangular corpus standing on four slender cabriol...

From Italy a late 18h century Louis XVI lift top lady's vanity desk, an antique walnut veneer and inlaid center rectangular dressing table, an antique Italian coiffeuse with superlative marquetry, shaped aprons on each side, resting on tapered legs, small drawers on the front and an original central sliding flip-up top which can be easily opened by pushing and revealing a beveled mirror inside, flanked by two lateral doors hiding deep compartments. The veneer of this antique Italian center table...

Fine and unusually small 18th century Swedish Rococo desk with one drawer and gilt bronze mounts, circa 1770, Stockholm, Sweden.

This magnificent jewel box/worker/vanity table on a high art nouveau base from the beginning of the 20th century. The legs are curved, following the codes of the Louis 15 style. The ...

Antique George III 18th century quality mahogany serpentine shaped side table having a quality serpentine shaped top above one long and two short serp...

18th century, Italian Louis XV Lacquered Wood Vanity Dressing Cabinet The vanity dressing cabinet was made in Italy in Genoa around the middle of the eighteenth century, Louis XV. Very elegant and refined, the cabinet has a wooden structure entirely lacquered and painted with floral decorations in shades of blue. The top opens with three flap doors: in the center the door has a mirror inside, while laterally there are two large compartments, lined with precious marbled paper. On the front there are three drawers, one central and two side, all lined with marbled paper. The four legs are moved and arched giving gracefulness to the overall architecture. The manufacture of marbled paper is very old, born in Japan in the twelfth century. It first spread to Persia and Turkey, where it was mainly used for the decoration of manuscripts, then, thanks to Western merchants and their contacts with the Middle East, it spread to the whole West: at that time, in fact, the production of marbled paper intensified to become the preferred technique for lining the inside of boxes then imported into Europe. It was thanks to the trade of Arab merchants that a link between the two cultures was created. During the sixteenth century it conquered and fascinated the whole of Europe where it was defined marbled paper (carta marmorizzata in Italy, paper marbré in France) by the obvious similarity with the veins of marble. Marbled paper is an ancient technique (it has its roots in Chinese craftsmanship of the 8th Century) as well as laborious and delicate and was used mainly in the bookbinding of ancient books...

18th Century French Louis XV Cube Pattern Marquetry Dressing Table or Coiffeuse Charming 18th century Louis XV vanity/dressing table or coiffeuse standing on slender cabriole legs, ...

18th Century French Louis XVI Geometrical Marquetry Dressing Table, "Coiffeuse" or 'Perruquiere' A Louis XVI marquetry dressing table, "coiffeuse" or 'perruquiere', the rectangular ...

Louis XV marquetry mechanical table or ‘table liseuse’, in the manner of Le´onard Boudin (1735-1804), veneered in tulipwood and other exotic woods, in part stained, on a carcase of o...