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29-522: 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. 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

58-399: A shoehorn , hair receiver and a tray. In the 21st century, with a few notable exceptions shown at the exhibits, the vanity tables are rarely produced and used; application of makeup occupies just a few moments in front of the bathroom mirror. A new demand for dressing tables was caused by beauty influencers on the social media , their young female followers have limited space, spurring

87-475: 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

116-504: A vulgarity somewhere in the 19th century, the term dressing table (that was in use earlier as well) had quickly replaced the toilet in the US, while the British, with their lavatory , were able to keep the word "toilet" neutral and to retain the toilet terminology for longer. The word "toilette" comes as a French diminutive form of toile , a cloth that from Medieval times was spread on top of

145-472: A dressing table equipped with mirrors is vanity and is used to apply makeup and other fashion accessories. Dressing table The dressing table is one of the examples of a rapid change in terminology. Originally in the 18th century it was called a toilet table , or simply a toilet , occasionally toiletta . However, as the American word "toilet" changed its meaning to describe a toilet bowl and became

174-503: A hard surface such as bathroom tiles, a hardwood floor, or pavement. Such combs were introduced in the mid-twentieth century. Today most plastic combs are unbreakable as technology has reached a point of understanding the causation of brittleness in these products. Modern artisan combs crafted from a wide variety of new and recycled materials have become popular over recent years. Used skateboard decks, vinyl records, brass , titanium alloy , acrylic, sterling silver , and exotic wood are

203-519: A mechanized version of the comb, is one of the machines that ushered in the Industrial Revolution ). A comb is used to distribute colors in paper marbling to make the swirling colour patterns in comb-marbled paper. Combs are also a tool used by police investigators to collect hair and dandruff samples that can be used in ascertaining dead or living persons' identities, as well as their state of health and toxicological profiles. Sharing combs

232-456: A predecessor of the modern barber chairs . By the end of the 18th century "dressing boxes" on tall legs were designed for men so they can shave while standing. Dressing tables often featured dressing table sets , a collection of china, porcelain, glass, crystal, or metal objects and receptacles for tools or personal grooming products. These could include a comb , brush , hand mirror, perfume atomizer, buttonhook , powder jar, hatpin holder,

261-540: A rotating mirror (the ballet Flore et Zéphire  [ fr ] had just become popular). The evolution of the dressing table naturally followed the furniture styles. For example, in the 19th century in United States, the desks could be found in the English Chippendale style , as well as in a variety of revivalist stylizations, from Elizabethan to Colonial . Charles-Honoré Lannuier , after moving to

290-604: A shaft and teeth that are placed at a perpendicular angle to the shaft. Combs can be made out of a number of materials, most commonly plastic , metal, or wood . In antiquity, horn and whalebone was sometimes used. Combs made from ivory and tortoiseshell were once common but concerns for the animals that produce them have reduced their usage. Wooden combs are largely made of boxwood , cherry wood, or other fine-grained wood. Good quality wooden combs are usually handmade and polished. Combs come in various shapes and sizes depending on what they are used for. A hairdressing comb may have

319-444: A table prior to using cosmetics. For some time in the 18th century American English contained a spelling variant twilight table . In the US, a term " lowboy " is used to describe a dressing table with multiple drawers made to match a tall chest, tallboy . One of the best visual expressions of a connection between the vanity table and vanitas was made by Charles Allan Gilbert in his All Is Vanity (1892). A combination of

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348-485: A thin, tapered handle for parting hair and close teeth. Common hair combs usually have wider teeth halfway and finer teeth for the rest of the comb. Hot combs were used solely for straightening hair during the colonial era in North America. A hairbrush comes in both manual and electric models. It is larger than a comb, and is also commonly used for shaping, styling, and cleaning hair. A combination comb and hairbrush

377-407: Is a common cause of parasitic infections much like sharing a hat, as one user can leave a comb with eggs or live parasites, facilitating the transmission of lice , fleas , mites , fungi , and other undesirables. Siblings are also more likely to pass on nits to each other if they share a comb. Stringing a plant's leaf or a piece of paper over one side of the comb and humming with cropped lips on

406-533: Is a type of comb having long, thick teeth which is usually used on kinky or Afro-textured hair . It is longer and thinner than the typical comb, and it is sometimes worn in the hair. The history of the Afro pick dates back at least 5,000 years, as a practical tool that may also have cultural and political meaning. An unbreakable plastic comb is a comb that, despite being made of plastic rather than (more expensive) metal, does not shatter into multiple pieces if dropped on

435-637: The Jōmon era . In the Nara period , Chinese combs from the Tang dynasty were introduced in Japan. Another form of comb in Japan is the Satsuma comb , which started to appear around the 17th century and was produced by the samurai warriors of the Satsuma clan as a side job. A liturgical comb is a decorated comb with used ceremonially in both Catholic and Orthodox Christianity during

464-715: The Middle Ages , and in Byzantine Rite up to this day. Specialized combs such as " flea combs" or " nit combs" can be used to remove macroscopic parasites and cause them damage by combing. A comb with teeth fine enough to remove nits is sometimes called a "fine-toothed comb", as in the metaphoric usage "go over [something] with a fine-toothed comb", meaning to search closely and in detail. Sometimes in this meaning, "fine-toothed comb" has been reanalysed as "fine toothcomb" and then shortened to "toothcomb", or changed into forms such as "the finest of toothcombs". An Afro pick

493-584: The Palace Comb Factory , also called Changzhou combs Factory , found in the city of Changzhou started to operate since the 5th century and continues to produce handmade wooden combs up to this day. Shubi were also introduced in Japan during the Nara period where they were referred by the generic name kushi . In Japan , combs are referred to as kushi . Indigenous Japanese kushi started to be used by Japanese people about 6000 years ago in

522-459: The thumb piano and music box . In China , combs are referred to by the generic term shubi ( 梳篦 ) or zhi ( 栉 ) and originated about 6000 years ago during the late Neolithic period . Chinese combs are referred as shu ( 梳 ) when referring to thick-tooth comb and bi ( 篦 ) when referred to thin-tooth comb. A form of shubi produced in Changzhou is the Changzhou comb ;

551-520: The US in 1803, established a popular "New York" style, mostly based on the Napoleonic one. A brief reign of Art Nouveau freed the dressing table shape from the confines of tradition, yielding striking pieces by Hector Guimard , Louis Majorelle , and Antoni Gaudi . After an interruption of the First World War , Art Deco took over, with a showcase example of the dressing table produced by one of

580-475: The aftermath of the Second World War , a Good Design movement in the US and Scandinavia called for stylish yet functional and inexpensive products, making the dressing table to become a reality for a middle-class home. For example, a combination writing desk and dressing table by Børge Mogensen (1950) reused the cover of the top drawer as a base of the pop-up mirror and the surface for writing, returning to

609-496: The concept of the bureau dressing table. In Ettore Sottsass ' console and mirror (1965) the shaving surface for men no longer stands on the floor and is hanging on the wall instead. After experiments with new materials in the 1960s and 1970s, the postmodernists like Sottsass and Michael Graves turned to revivalism, now combined with whimsical irony (cf. Graves' Plaza dressing table and stool set). In Japan, women did not use dressing tables, they were instead kneeling in front of

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638-432: The creation of new compact designs. The vanity furniture set with matching dressing chair and table became an ostentatious display of wealth in the piece  [ fr ] made by Nicolas Henri Jacob  [ fr ] for, likely, Marie-Caroline, Duchess of Berry . This light-reflecting set is made almost entirely of the cut crystal and bronze, with candelabras depicting Zephyrus and Flora supporting

667-415: The dressing table in the middle of the 18th century, it was either mounted in a rotating frame or designed to fold into the table itself. The dressing table reached peak of its importance and owes it to Marquise de Pompadour who changed the originally private toilette ritual into a morning reception. The time of Marie Antoinette marks an appearance of a specially designed chair, fateuil de toilette ,

696-513: The history of vanity from the cosmetic box storage box known for a very long time (storage container for ointments, face paints, perfumes was excavated from the tomb of an Egyptian scribe Reniseneb , 15th century BC ). The renewed interest in self-adornment during the Renaissance created the étuis and the need for the tabletops to put them on. By the late 17th century the dressing table took its familiar shape. A mirror became an essential part of

725-451: The leaders of the movement, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann . His Colonette dressing table plays on the meaning of the toile with a cloth-imitating marquetry , made of ivory and ebony , placed at the center. The Bauhaus modernists of the early 20th century with their clean, occasionally amazingly simple, designs, inspired American designers, like Paul T. Frankl with his skyscraper -themed tables with oversized (semi-)circular mirrors. In

754-589: The low "cosmetic stands". Comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating back to 5,000 years ago in Persia . Weaving combs made of whalebone dating to the middle and late Iron Age have been found on archaeological digs in Orkney and Somerset . Combs are made of

783-544: The opposite side dramatically increases the high-frequency harmonic content of the hum produced by the human voice box, and the resulting spread sound spectrum can be modulated by changing the resonating frequency of the oral cavity. This was the inspiration for the kazoo , a membranophone . The comb is also a lamellophone . Comb teeth have harmonic qualities of their own, determined by their shape, length, and material. A comb with teeth of unequal length, capable of producing different notes when picked, eventually evolved into

812-428: The writing desk and dressing table for the private space first appeared in the early 18th century in a shape of bureau on top of shallow drawers supported by the cabriole legs with toilet mirror above the bureau. By the middle of the 18th century Thomas Chippendale was selling buroe dressing tables that combined the dressing and writing tables with drawers without an actual bureau or built-in mirror. Adlin traces

841-450: Was patented in the 19th century. Combs can be used for many purposes. Historically, their main purpose was securing long hair in place, decorating the hair, matting sections of hair for dreadlocks , or keeping a kippah or skullcap in place. In Spain, a peineta is a large decorative comb used to keep a mantilla in place. In industry and craft, combs are used in separating cotton fibres from seeds and other debris (the cotton gin ,

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