Lowboy

A lowboy is a low chest or table with drawers and short legs. This watercolor of a lowboy has four drawers, metal handles and feet, and a shiny varnish.

Henry Moore, Lowboy, c. 1936. Image commissioned for the Index of American Design, the watercolor drawing is located within the National Gallery of Art

A lowboy is an American collectors term for one type of dressing table. It is a small table with one or two rows of drawers, so called in contradistinction to (and designed to match) the tallboy or highboy chest of drawers.

History and description

Lowboys and tallboys were favorite 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 center drawer.

Another term for a dressing table equipped with mirrors is vanity and is used to apply makeup and other fashion accessories.

See also

• Chest of drawers
• Commode
• List of desk forms and types
• Sideboard

General and cited references

• Campbell, Gordon (2006). The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts: (Two-volume Set). Vol. 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.
• Gloag, John (1952). A Short Dictionary Of Furniture. Read Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4474-9772-1. OCLC 1099027952. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Dressing Tables collection at the Disseny Hub Barcelona