Dressing Table and Mirror
- Date
- 1879
- Material
- Ebonized cherry, holly and purpleheart marquetry, padouk, marble, brass, mirrored glass, and gilding
- made in
- New York, New York, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Furniture
- Collection
- Decorative Arts and Design
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 127
- Dimensions
- 85 1/4 x 78 x 24 3/8 in. (216.5 x 198.1 x 61.9 cm)
- Credit Line
- Funds given by Mrs. Harold Baer, Mrs. Ernest Eddy in memory of William P. Williams, the Weiss Foundation in memory of Edith N. Weiss, Mr. and Mrs. L. K. Ayers, and the Decorative Arts Society
- Rights
- Public Domain
- Object Number
- 183:1977.2a,b
NOTES
This dressing table is from a large suite of bedroom furniture in the Museum's collection, made for the New York City mansion of Arabella Worsham Huntington. Composed of elemental geometric forms with two-dimensional ornament and a reduced color palette, the dressing table exemplifies the late 19th-century taste for Asian art and design. Light-colored patterns of flowering vines set against black-painted surfaces echo the composition and coloring of Japanese prints and lacquer. The floral and foliate designs that cover the surface are executed in marquetry, a technique that uses small pieces of colored woods to create pictorial images. The rounded corners of the marble and the upper drawers, adapted from Chinese furniture, along with the molded contours of the legs and rails that separate the drawers, lighten the visual weight of each element.
Provenance
c.1881-84 - 1924
Arabella Worsham Huntington (c.1850-1924) and Collis Potter Huntington (1821-1900), New York, NY, USA [1]
1924
Archer Milton Huntington (c.1871-1955), New York, NY, by inheritance [2]
1924 - 1977
Katharine W. Berton (d.1977), gift of Archer Milton Huntington; Arline Berton Eubanks, Yellville, AK, and Carolyn Berton, Helena, AK, by inheritance [3]
1977 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Arline Berton Eubanks and Carolyn Berton [4]
Notes:
This piece is part of a seven piece bedroom suite (183:1977.1-.7). Each piece in the suite shares the same provenance.
[1] Arabella Huntington had owned and decorated a number of homes in New York city prior to her marriage to Collis Huntington in 1884. The bedroom suite may have been commissioned for one of those earlier residences. It was placed in a guest room in the Huntington's residence at 2 East 57th Street which was completed in 1892-93. [Voorsanger, Catherine Hoover. "Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age," New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994, p. 199]. Life dates from Huntington family website [Huntington Family Association (Accessed 2/2/2004)].
[2] Arabella Huntington's home was dismantled after her death in 1924 and her son, Archer Milton Huntington, acquired the suite [letter from Carolyn Berton, May 6, 1977, SLAM document files].
[3] Katharine W. Berton, Arabella's niece, received the bedroom furniture from Archer [letter, see note [1]]. Upon Berton's death, her daughters Carolyn Berton and Arline Berton Eubanks inherited the furniture.
[4] Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, June 30, 1977.
Arabella Worsham Huntington (c.1850-1924) and Collis Potter Huntington (1821-1900), New York, NY, USA [1]
1924
Archer Milton Huntington (c.1871-1955), New York, NY, by inheritance [2]
1924 - 1977
Katharine W. Berton (d.1977), gift of Archer Milton Huntington; Arline Berton Eubanks, Yellville, AK, and Carolyn Berton, Helena, AK, by inheritance [3]
1977 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Arline Berton Eubanks and Carolyn Berton [4]
Notes:
This piece is part of a seven piece bedroom suite (183:1977.1-.7). Each piece in the suite shares the same provenance.
[1] Arabella Huntington had owned and decorated a number of homes in New York city prior to her marriage to Collis Huntington in 1884. The bedroom suite may have been commissioned for one of those earlier residences. It was placed in a guest room in the Huntington's residence at 2 East 57th Street which was completed in 1892-93. [Voorsanger, Catherine Hoover. "Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age," New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994, p. 199]. Life dates from Huntington family website [Huntington Family Association (Accessed 2/2/2004)
[2] Arabella Huntington's home was dismantled after her death in 1924 and her son, Archer Milton Huntington, acquired the suite [letter from Carolyn Berton, May 6, 1977, SLAM document files].
[3] Katharine W. Berton, Arabella's niece, received the bedroom furniture from Archer [letter, see note [1]]. Upon Berton's death, her daughters Carolyn Berton and Arline Berton Eubanks inherited the furniture.
[4] Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, June 30, 1977.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.