Vanity of vanities: a Tiffany and Company rediscovery

Magazine Antiques, April, 2008 by Dale Cyrus Wheary

Among the many original furnishings at Maymont, a restored Gilded Age mansion in Richmond, Virginia, the most fantastic are surely the dressing table and chair illustrated in Figure 1. Made by Tiffany and Company, they are constructed of narwhal tusk and silver and were originally owned by James H. (1841-1922) and Sallie May Dooley (1846-1925), for whom the house was built in 1893. Photographs taken in 1926, shortly after Maymont became a museum and park (through the Dooleys' bequest), show several accessories from a large vanity set atop the dressing table. By 1975, when the nonprofit Maymont Foundation took responsibility for the estate, all the accessories had disappeared.

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However, about six weeks ago, while undertaking conservation work on other objects in the house, the curatorial staff called in a locksmith to open a long-sealed dresser. Inside, astonished staff members found twenty-two pieces of the silver and ivory toilette set wrapped in Richmond newspapers dating from 1928 to 1930 (Fig. 2). While years of ongoing restoration and conservation had exposed the mansion and its approximately one thousand original furnishings to intense scrutiny, the Tiffany and Company cache had remained safely hidden in plain view. The 1926 photographs show that in addition to the surviving pieces, there was also a second perfume bottle; and fittings in the table's swing-out "drawers" indicate that a second button-hook, small scissors, and an unidentified cylindrical item were also originally part of the set.

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Dooley, a Richmond business and civic leader, and his wife were no strangers to Tiffany and Company, as the Maymont collection attests. (1) The curious silver and narwhal tusk dressing table and chair would have appealed to their penchant for unusual furniture, which is evident throughout the house. Unfortunately, however, all the personal papers in the house were burned immediately after Sallie Dooley's death, so no documents regarding the purchase of the dressing table, chair, and matching vanity set survive; and to date Tiffany and Company archives have revealed little about this remarkable ensemble. In July 1926, in response to a letter from Mrs. William C. Bentley, who had been hired by the City of Richmond to head the newly formed house museum, Tiffany and Company wrote that while the original records could not be located, "these pieces were made for exhibition at the St. Louis Exposition." (2) And, indeed, judging by a table of Tiffany and Company pattern numbers, those on the Maymont objects were assigned to pieces designed in 1903. (3) Moreover, newspapers used as padding between the mirror and its backing date from 1903 and 1904. Even so, no source has yet come to light actually placing the set at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis in 1904.

At the time the ensemble was made, Paulding Farnham was the creative genius of Tiffany and Company, responsible for award-winning objects displayed at several expositions. (4) Of the many styles introduced during Farnham's tenure, Maymont's suite relates to those inspired by Celtic and Viking themes. The intricate interlaced pattern of the candelabra and the swirling, zoomorphic chasing on the chair seat and perfume bottle compare to various elements of punch bowls, a coffee set, and other objects produced in these styles. (5) With the 1903 discovery and subsequent excavation of the ancient Oseberg burial ship in Norway, the Viking theme would have been of particular interest at this time. Setting the dressing table and chair apart from all other silver show pieces of this era, the striking use of entire narwhal tusks, capped with dragon's-head finials, as supports for the table and chair accentuates the overall Nordic character. Small silver walrus faces ornamenting the rediscovered vanity set continue the allusion to the Arctic realm of Viking seafarers. For example, a head appears on each corner of four small silk-lined receptacles that fit together to form an insert that fills a covered oval well in the center of the tabletop (see Fig. 2, top).

Described by Tiffany and Company scholar Janet Zapata as a "tour de force in craftsmanship," (6) the remarkable toilette suite, like the intact Maymont estate itself, is an unmistakable offspring of America's Gilded Age, embodying the conspicuous consumption of rich and exotic materials, an affinity for historical design, and the excitement generated among designers and collectors by the great international expositions. With the recent discovery of the set of accessories, it is hoped that further documentation will emerge regarding the story of one of Tiffany's world-class creations.

(1) Other objects acquired from Tiffany and Company by James and Sallie May Dooley that are now in the Maymont House Museum include a three-handled silver presentation cup, a fan box, and three French clocks retailed by Tiffany and Company. They also owned a set of repousse silver service plates, and are believed to have had silver flatware in Tiffany's Chrysanthemum pattern.