Charleston, South Carolina, 1790-1800
Mahogany with maple and yellow pine
Catalog no. 181
Dressing glasses were usually imported from England before the Revolution. After 1780, when trade with Britain was disrupted, Americans began to purchase dressing glasses made in this country. Charleston carver and gilder John Parkinson (w. 1777-1798) took advantage of the situation, advertising in 1783 that he manufactured “ladies toilet or dressing glasses made oval or square.” Despite these and other documentary references, this dressing glass is the only Charleston-made example known. Recalling the powerful stance and shapely form of the chest below, the glass echoes the design of other British- and continental-inspired Charleston furniture forms from the early national period.