Lowboy

A lowboy

A lowboy is an American collectors term for one type of dressing table, or vanity.^[1] It is a small table with one or two rows of drawers, so called in contradistinction to the tallboy or highboy chest of drawers.^[2][3]

History and description

A different type of dressing table.

Both lowboy and tallboy were favourite pieces of the 18th century, both in England and in the United States; the lowboy was most frequently used as a dressing-table, but sometimes as a side-table. It is usually made of oak, walnut or mahogany, with the drawer-fronts mounted with brass pulls and escutcheons. The more elegant examples in the Queen Anne, early Georgian, and Chippendale styles often have cabriole legs, carved knees, and slipper or claw-and-ball feet. The fronts of some examples also are sculpted with the scallop-shell motif beneath the centre drawer.^[3]

Another term for a dressing table equipped with mirrors is vanity and is used to applying makeup or fashion accessories.^[4]

See also

• Chest of drawers
• Commode
• Pedestal desk

Notes

1. Lowboy is a "collectors term for a dressing table made in 18th century America often with a matching highboy (Campbell 2006, pp. 61, 479)".
2. Loomis IV 2011, p. 59.
3. Chisholm 1911, p. 17.
4. Campbell 2006, pp. 331.

References

• Campbell, Gordon (2006). The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts: (Two-volume Set) 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 61, 331, 479. ISBN 9780195189483.
• Loomis IV, Frank Farmer (2011). Antiques 101: A Crash Course in Everything Antique (2 ed.). Krause Publications. p. 59. ISBN 9781440227387.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lowboy". Encyclopædia Britannica 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 72.

External links

• Dressing Tables collection at the Disseny Hub Barcelona