Can you date this vanity table?? Kinda urgent...

[Tinseltown]

I couldn't offer an opinion as to the piece's age, but I like your perspective on this, Rathdown.

We all like to think we're getting a good deal, of course, but when all is said and done, we're dealing with furniture here, which we'll be using and looking at on a daily basis. Me, I wouldn't mind owning valuable antiques, but then I'd get anxious whenever a child or a pet or an intoxicated guest (it's the most wonderful time of the year!) got anywhere near them.

Yeah this piece def needs a glass top added on it... I am very excited to see the drawings closely... if there are pretty dresses on it it will make me want it more...

 

[Rathdown]

If you like it, buy it. I have 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century furniture, and use it. There is a William and Mary chest, full of extra clothes, on the bedroom floor landing, and the only protection it has is a glass cover on the top, to protect the oyster shell veneer. My dining room has an 18th century French mirror above the fireplace, two side boards (one Regency and the other Edwardian), a matching pair of 1930's "Georgian" sofa tables flanking the door to the hall, and in the center of the room a new "Duncan Phyfe" dining table surrounded by 10 equally new, ornately carved, over-sized, faux Chippendale dining chairs. The same mish-mash is true in my drawing room, library, and breakfast room.

Furniture is meant to be used as much as admired. I believe it was Morris who said, "Have nothing in your home that is not beautiful or useful." So, if you find a certain beauty in your Edwardian vanity table, buy it, use it, and appreciate it for what it is-- something beautiful and useful.

 

[Rathdown]

Rathdown has it pretty much dead on. Early 20th century. I'd place it after 1900, before 1920. Nifty piece (I'd get rid of the odd mismatched mirror).
Choose the first one and leave the white one for someone else.

Hmm. Not sure that I'd replace the mirror; as a furniture junkie who owns a lot of "junk" furniture, I'd be reticent to destroy the integrity of a piece of, arguably, 100 year old furniture. If the vanity table is all of a piece, I'd tend to respect it for what it is, rather than alter it.

I agree totally with your assessment of the white one... shudder... leave it for the next buyer!

 

[Rathdown]

Thanks... Its supposed to be mahogany (do you think it is??) so it should be dark wood below as well no??

Looking forward to the pic

Sorry if I seem to hogging this thread. My guess is that the table is possibly French Walnut, although the mirror frame seems to be darker, perhaps mahogany. It's really difficult to tell without actually seeing the piece in person.

 

[Tinseltown]

Thank you everyone!!!
Turns out the tabletop wasnt painted - it was just a tapestry that came with it.. underneath was a darker lightly scrathed wood.
I managed to get the price down from $315 to $228 - thats pretty good no?
Still need to spend $$ on having it delivered by some movers, thoguh. Ugh... so pricy.

They had removed the mirror etc for storage and I actually didnt see it with everything mounted into place, but seller assured me everything was fine.

 

[Rathdown]

Congratulations! It sounds like you landed a bargain, especially since you ended up with a tapestry as well. Isn't it lovely when Christmas comes early-- even if only by a week.

 

[Tinseltown]

Thank you. The tapestry looked kind of smooth in the back.. does that mean its new? I mean shouldn't an early 1900s tapestry be all knotty in the back?
The tapestry could have been made later than the table of course.
The only thing that sucks is I have to pay for some movers to bring it..

 

[virgi]

seeing the tapestry, I would say this is a 1920s 1930s reproduction. The tapestry most likely is machine made, which came to be around this period