Antique furniture

[jcgmoi]

I'm reading a novel that refers tangentially to a 'George III silent valet, a gimmick for $1500'. A sketch shows it located in the master bath. Any idea what a silent valet is?

[Lissa]

I think it's a closet that, considering it was in the bathroom, most likely held towels and soap and such.

[handy]

Are you sure its not a 'silent butler'? Which is a special ashtray.

[Guy Propski]

A silent valet is a piece of furniture built for holding a pair of pants, a shirt and other bits of clothing. It was shaped like a chair, with the backrest replaced by a coat-hanger shaped contraption. You would hang your pants and shirt on the coat hanger, and lay out undies, socks and such on the seat. More elaborate models had places to hangs ties, shoe trees, etc. The purpose was to provide a way of keeping your clothes neat and folded while in the bath, not dropped in a pile on the floor.

They're called "silent valets" because they took the place of a human valet, who would have stood there holding Sir's clothes while he got out of the bath (and talking, I presume).

[jcgmoi]

I believe Guy has nailed it. A few pages past the reference is a schematic drawing of the bathroom, and the silent valet is displayed as a single free-standing bar, near the bath, like you would use to represent a screen, but only as wide as a door.

This question is meaningless in the context of the novel, which was concerned with arson, murder and other intrigue, but when a couple of searches turned up nothing, I started to stew.

Then I went to the right place.

Thanks all.

[handy]

'A silent valet is a piece of furniture built for holding a pair of pants, a shirt and other bits of clothing. It
was shaped like a chair'

Oh, one of those, that was a second guess. We sell them in the shop sometimes for $25.00.

[sunbear]

I thought it was the thing next to the Dumb Waiter.

[Jois]

We used to ride in a dumb waiter! It went between two or three floor of a house our parents were renting and except for our laughing it was very quiet.