Lowboy

A lowboy is an American collectors term for one type of dressing table.^[1] It is a small table with one or two rows of drawers, so called in contradistinction to (and designed to match^[2]) the tallboy or highboy chest of drawers.^[3][4]

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.^[4]

Another term for a dressing table equipped with mirrors is vanity and is used to apply makeup and other fashion accessories.^[5]

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

• 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.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lowboy". . Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 72.

• Dressing Tables collection at the Disseny Hub Barcelona