Just saw this on criagslist (New York) … what is it ?
Looks like an old-style dresser; a mirror would have been mounted on the wall in back.
Art Deco vanity, missing the mirror
The attractive assistant lies across the top, and the magician saws down the middle…
No, what tanstaafl said; it’s a dressing table.
Hmm–for me a dresser is a chest of drawers, and a dressing table=vanity.
and a follow-up question … any idea if this is possibly a valuable antique ?
Yep, it’s a vanity, my grandmother had one almost exactly like it (with a mirror), and she called it a “dressing table.”
I know my grandmother’s was an antique and I see little difference in the two, so I bet this one is an antique. I have no clue whether it’s worth anything though.
Art Deco TV stand.
There are identical horizontal lines on the inner part of the “towers”, close to the top, where the stain/finish didn’t reach. I bet there was a shelf or some other kind of support there that would have held a mirror.
I’ve seen one like it.
This one lacks the large, elegant, oval mirror above the center.
It looks awfully low in the picture, doesn’t it?
That’s what I’m thinking. Most of the vanities I’ve seen have a knee hole in the middle where the chair goes, so Claudette Colbert can sit down as she applies her lipstick and checks her marcelled hair.
I think this is too low for a vanity or dressing table. Maybe just a dresser with a shelf for a mirror?
It does seem low, but that’s just the style. There would have been a little seat that was more like a footstool in terms of height.
Here is a picture of another dressing table – different style, but also low.
All that lovely cross-grain wood is veneer, and very prone to bubble, crack, chip, and peel. If the veneer is in perfect shape and you can find a mirror (I would expect a three panel, not an oval) it could fetch a fair price.
I think it’s the new Enron logo. Mind you, they’re on a budget.
I’ve seen things a bit like this described as ‘telephone cabinet’ (the idea being that the telephone goes on the taller bit and you perch temporarily/occasionally on the lower piece - although they usually only have one tall side, so it may not be one of those.
Here’s what it’s supposed to look (overall) like with the mirror: antique-art.com.au - antique art Resources and Information.
I’ve seen enough of these that I was under the impression they were mass-produced and popular at some point, but not necessarily valuable.
The one I saw was more mirror than dresser.
This particular style with the curved veneer top is called waterfall. The dressers I have priced in this style run from $100 to $500 depending on the nature of the piece, its condition and who is selling it and the size of the piece. This was a mass produced style popular from the 20s-40s. This page has much more information.