Empire Period Dressing Table, France, Circa 1810

Elegant Empire period dressing table in mahogany and mahogany veneer, decorated with rich chiseled and gilded bronze ornamentation. Surmounted by an oval-shaped psyche mirror, decorated with a frieze of ivy and small flowers, with uprights each supporting two light-arms. Composed in the lower part of a console covered with a black marble top, it opens on the belt with three drawers, richly decorated with palmettes, surrounding a central cartouche in projection decorated with two winged victories embracing an allegorical figure and revealing a sliding tablet forming a writing desk.
It is supported by two console uprights at the front and two pilaster uprights at the rear, resting on a concave-shaped plinth ending in casters.

The ancestor of the dressing table appeared during Antiquity in the form of a dressing table, named after the cloth placed on it. In the Middle Ages, women used ordinary tables on which polished metal mirrors were placed.
In the 18th century and during the first half of the 19th century, the dressing table became essential and responded to a social reality, with important people receiving their guests while they were preparing themselves.
Precious woods and rich gilded bronze ornamentation are used for these pieces of furniture, which, beyond their practical aspect, also reflect the social status of the person who owns them. Some talented cabinetmakers transformed the dressing table from a practical piece of furniture into a piece of furniture with transformations and combinations, and some models, like the dressing table presented here, can also serve as a writing table or a game table.