Meissen-Style Dressing Table

fourth quarter 19th century, German, composed of porcelain, bronze and wood, the hand-painted pedestal base decorated with various putti on the legs and trimmed with encrusted flowers, the ebonized wooden top set with two bronze-trimmed drawers, decorated with hand-painted scenes, marked with an unidentified blue underglaze crossed swords.
h. 27-3/4", w. 28", d. 18-1/2"

Provenance: By repute Margaret B. Shotwell Collection, Omaha, Nebraska, ca. 1930s-1963; Private collection, Alabama.

Exhibited: By repute: "World-Herald Hobby Show", Omaha, Nebraska, 1938

Literature: "Hobby Authority in Omaha Viewing Antique Collection", Omaha World-Herald. March 30, 1939. p. 6; "Unusual Dresden Bed the Envy of Collectors and the Triumph of Owners". Omaha World-Herald. March 17, 1963. p. 5-E.

Notes: This fine Meissen-style dressing table was reportedly in the prominent collection of the eponymous Margaret Shotwell (d. 1962) as part of her bedroom suite, and was illustrated in photographs taken in 1938 for the World-Herald Hobby Show, for which her Dresden suite won first prize, and the covetous eye of Midwestern porcelain collectors. The dressing table offered here appears to be the same as the one illustrated. Additional photographs of the dressing table may have been featured in a resultant publication in 1939 for Hobbies Magazine, as suggested by a March 30, 1939 article stating that O. C. Leightner, the publisher for Hobbies Magazine, and an avid Dresden collector, was in town examining the set.

Shotwell, a famous concert pianist, who played internationally throughout the 1920s, made headlines from coast to coast after her clandestine lover, the timber tycoon W. W. Hoagland, committed suicide after composing a letter on her typewriter (on this dressing table) stating that should he die by accident he would bequeath her $500,000. The letter produced two months later at the settling of his estate caused a scandal and an ensuing lawsuit by the widow for "alienation of her late husband's affection." Two years later after a bitter legal battle, Shotwell won. Since then, her Dresden suite has captivated the public for both its sheer opulent beauty and its famed boudoir expose. Following Shotwell's death, the suite was sold off piece-meal. The impressive bed and two mirrors, one of which originally accompanied this dressing table, was illustrated again in 1963 in the Omaha World-Herald under the heading "Unusual Dresden Bed the Envy of Collectors and the Triumph of Owners."

Reference: "The Ex-Love Battle of 2 Society Widows Crashes into a Money Clash", San Diego Union. Sunday, April 17, 1932.