lowboy
Illustration — Henry Moore, Lowboy, c. Image commissioned for the Index of American Design, the watercolor drawing is located within the National Gallery of Art A lowboy is an American collectors term for one type of dressing table. It is a small table with one or two rows of drawers, so called in contradistinction to (and designed to match) the tallboy or highboy chest of drawers.
Also recorded as low chest · half chest · low case · lowdaddy
lowboy
Isidore Sovensky · This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the National Gallery of Art. Please see the Gallery's Open Access Policy. · CC0
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- dressing table
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Illustration — Henry Moore, Lowboy, c. Image commissioned for the Index of American Design, the watercolor drawing is located within the National Gallery of Art A lowboy is an American collectors term for one type of dressing table. It is a small table with one or two rows of drawers, so called in contradistinction to (and designed to match) the tallboy or highboy chest of drawers.
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History and description
Lowboys and tallboys were favorite pieces of the 18th century, both in England and in the United States; the lowboy was most frequently used as a dressing-table, but sometimes as a side-table. It is usually made of oak, walnut or mahogany, with the drawer-fronts mounted with brass pulls and escutcheons. The more elegant examples in the Queen Anne, early Georgian, and Chippendale styles often have cabriole legs, carved knees, and slipper or claw-and-ball feet. The fronts of some examples also are sculpted with the scallop-shell motif beneath the center drawer. Another term for a dressing table equipped with mirrors is vanity and is used to apply makeup and other fashion accessories.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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