Object Spotlight: Dressing Table
George Washington knew the power of a well-groomed head of hair and a nice suit of clothes, just like most presidents. No piece of furniture in Mount Vernon’s collection makes this more apparent than his dressing table, made in Paris during the reign of King Louis XVI.
“This table certainly doesn’t look like an instrument of statecraft,” says assistant curator Jennifer Van Horn, “but by helping Washington appear as a polite and refined person while serving as America’s first president, it helped him to define how the president should appear, and so I think it is a political artifact as well as a very personal one.”
The mahogany table, where Washington washed, shaved and was groomed, has all the trappings of a very sophisticated vanity. Apart from a writing slide that comes out for penning letters, the piece was mostly used by Washington for the day’s preparations. A hinged wooden top opens to reveal a mirror and a marble surface that protected the wood below from the likes of the water and essences (scents) as well as the hair powder that Washington would have used.
The central drawer below has five compartments, one of which has a removable box with shaped dividers and a lid. What would Washington have stored in all of these areas? The possibilities include razors, shaving equipment, toothbrushes, dental tools, bottles of essence, hair bags (which men used to tie their queues in) or perhaps even mementos and private items of personal significance that he didn’t want others to get at easily.
Washington acquired the dressing table in March 1790 from the departing French minister to the United States, the Comte de Moustier (1751-1817). After leaving the presidency, Washington shipped the table to Mount Vernon and placed it in his Study, where he spent several hours each morning attending to his private affairs.
The dressing table can be seen today in the A. Alfred Taubman Gallery of Mount Vernon’s Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center.
Object Spotlight is a regular feature on George Washington Wired that highlights some of the household belongings that Washington came into contact with in his daily life. Assistant curator Jennifer Van Horn contributed to this report. Check out Mount Vernon’s eMuseum to find more of Washington’s belongings.
Dressing table: Purchase, 1905, Conservation courtesy of Stanley N. Gaines [W-202]
April 29th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Hello! Interesting post! I recently visited Mount Vernon and LOVED it, and I am really liking this blog and the Mount Vernon website. I am hoping to go to the George Washington exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul soon. I can’t seem to get enough!