From a box — to a dressing table

[..If I make the lashes dark- And the eyes more bright – And the lips more scarlet,- Or ask if all be right- From mirror after mirror,- No vanity’s displayed:- I’m looking for the face I had- Before the world was made…]

by William Butler Yeats, “Before the world was made“, from The Winding star, in A woman young and Old, published 1929;

van·i·ty  – \ˈva-nə-tē\ : the quality of people who have too much pride in their own appearance, abilities, achievements, etc. : the quality of being vain; a bathroom cabinet that is covered by a sink and a countertop; more specifically, it is a box. The history of the vanity begins with a box. It has been known since ancient times, that ornate boxes have been crafted to hold a veriety of jars for cosmetics, flasks for rare perfumes and exotics oils, implements for applying makeup, and mirrors. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is presenting “Vanities: The Art of the Dressing Table“. The exibit begins with a 3.000 years old  inlaid cedar, cosmetic box from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. It was found in a Pharaoh’s tomb, in 1910 by Howard Carter.

Le Bonheur du jour ou, Les Graces à la mode_Barbier

It was just in the late 17th century, that the form of the vanity as we know it today began to develop. European high society began commissioning luxurious specialized furniture from craftsmen and furniture makers. The poudreuse in France, and the low boy, Beau Brummel, and shaving table in England served as models for the dressing table.

 Jean-François Oeben and   Roger Vandercruse Mechanical Table (1761–63) is one of the finest examples of this period in the exhibition. This table was artfully engineered so that the top slides back as the front moves forward to reveal the vanity mirror and additional compartments. The table was most likely intended for Madame de Pompadour’s château overlooking the Seine. She was the was the mistress of Louis XV and a style-setter. The design telegraphs the marquise’s place in society by way of various symbols, for example the tower—the main emblem of her coat of arms—is depicted at the top of the gilt-bronze mounts at each corner.

Mechanical – Table

In America the designs for dressing tables were simpler, with the Chippendale style among the most popular. During the 19th century, dressing tables were made in many revivalist styles including the Gothic, Elizabethan, Rococo, Renaissance, and Colonial revivals. Eventually, in the later 19th century, the dressing table, became a matching part of the bedroom suite.

Art Deco period in the early 20th century, in both Europe and America, that luxurious dressing tables came to epitomize the modern concept of glamour and luxury. Hollywood films of the 1920s and ’30s, with their fantasy world of penthouses atop Manhattan skyscrapers, were hugely popular during this period and often depicted the femme fatale heroine sitting at her supremely elegant vanity table in the bedroom or dressing room. Norman Bel Geddes’ enamel and chromeplated steel dressing table (1932) is a model for this streamlined and sophisticated style.

Cosmetic box of the Cupbearer Kemeni

Necessaire

Comb – Tiffany

More recently, designs for the dressing table have reflected the diversity of new styles, from the modern molded plastic valet dressing cabinet of Raymond Loewy (1969) to a postmodernist Plaza dressing table and stool by Michael Graves (1981) and a minimalist dressing table of today by the Korean contemporary designer Choi Byung Hoon (2013).

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art ;