18th Century dressing tables & dressing rooms

The focus here is on illustrations showing the dressing table (or toilet table) and the various accoutrements that could be found on the table – cosmetics, pincushions, patch boxes, hairpins, jewelry, and so on. You can also see how ladies (and some gentlemen) got themselves presentable (and what they were wearing while doing so – women are often shown in a white peignoir or dressing jacket (like V&A T.28-1969), while men sometimes wear a morning gown), as well as looking at how the dressing room itself was furnished and who else was in the room at the time – including hairdressers, barbers, maids, and even milliners who come by to sell goods.

From the Galerie des Modes, 1778:

Without extending here on the origin and antiquity of toilettes, we must confine ourselves to remark that a toilette is now an indispensable piece of furniture for all people; whether they have pretensions or are out of style.

There are closed toilettes and dressed ones; the latter are the most excellent and agreeable; the others require less of an appareil.*


The Print shows a young Lady in front of her toilette of the latter type: she has profited from a moment of her maid's absence to write a letter which she is folding as a love-note; it is destined to break a rendezvous before she forms a second, which is more agreeable than the first.

She is in a peignoir with large, open sleeves, allowing the sight of the bonshommes that trim the sleeves à pagode of her bedjacket; a band of very fine muslin serves as the peignoir's trim, and extends around its circumference.  The hair is not dressed.