Night table

Object/Artifact

Saco Museum

Name/Title

Night table

Entry/Object ID

1950.1.111

Description

Mahogany night table and basin stand with a flat top with four round holes, one large central opening for a wash bowl and four smaller ones in the corners. The storage area immediately below the top is covered by a tambour door with a wooden knob (original knob missing; the wooden knob is a replacement). Below the storage area is a small locking drawer with brass pulls with bail handles. The bottom "drawer" houses a chamber pot. The opening for the chamberpot has been modified with later cutout to accomodate a pot with a handle. The legs and outer edge of the top are decorated with light colored string inlay. The inner portion of the front legs are attached to the drawer front.

Made/Created

Date made

1809 - 1816

Dimensions

Height

32 in

Width

22 in

Depth

18 in

Material

mahogany, mahogany veneer, pine

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Object Label

Label

Night Table and Basin Stand, 1809-1816 Saco, attributed to the shop of Joshua Cumston and David Buckminster mahogany, mahogany veneer, pine John S. Locke Collection, gift of the estate of Almira Locke McArthur

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

This night table and basin stand was clearly inspired by Plate 7 in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book (1793). Although it lacks a hinged cover, the arrangement of the washbasin top, storage cabinet with tambour door, and two drawers below is the same as that shown in the design plate. The bottom "drawer" was constructed to house a commode pot, which also would have been fitted with a wooden seat and turned wooden cover, now missing. The original pot, which lacked a handle, must have broken at some point and the opening was enlarged to accommodate a replacement chamber pot with a handle. The stand descended in the family from Almira Cleaves Dummer, a daughter of Daniel and Sarah Fairfield Cleaves; the stand probably first belonged to them.