CENTURY DRESSING TABLE AND STOOL

This pair was made for clients who have commissioned some of my favourite pieces over the years. They liked the look of the Shell dressing table, made ten years earlier, though wanted a single, rather than triptych, mirror and a single drawer in the gallery. I incorporated some design cues – the gothic arch of the mirror and curved transitions at the tops of the legs and corners of the sycamore inlay – from other work I have done for the house. As for the Shell dressing table we used glorious English walnut for the construction, with ripple sycamore for internal linings.

Dressing tables are often statement pieces, though usually private rather than ostentatious, and I like the fact that they will be constantly used. This bears, by a piece of lucky timing (involving only the slightest manipulation), Makers Mark NT100 in my chronological list: hence the name, which seems suitable for such a special piece.