This late 19th century miniature 3-drawer dresser with original mirror mounted above, was likely used as a salesman’s sample by an itinerant sales person who traveled the countryside promoting his articles, usually by seeking out merchants to take orders based on this scaled down miniature bureau, or by leaving it on display in a merchant’s establishment to take orders from that merchant’s customers.
This American bureau is made of oak wood circa 1890, and is in very good and sound condition, both structurally and aesthetically. It appears to have been painted at some time, but is now in it’s original wood surface. There are remnants of white paint to the interior drawer sides and to the rear edge of the bureau. The drawer fronts have their original white enamel “pulls”; the interior drawers are of of pine. A child has at some time, obviously, “decorated” the drawer bottoms with a type of colored crayon (see images). Note the original crazed silvering to the mirror mounted in place, atop the 3 drawers of the bureau. There is a candle stand on each side of the mirror frame, resting on a bracket. Scalloped trim to the bottom of three “showing” sides, along with a nice chamfered edge to the top, is a nice fancy “touch” and compliments the decoration, along with a shaped and scalloped mirror frame mount.
All in all, this is a difficult to find, charming miniature version, almost identical in shape, design, and scale to a full sized example of a 3 drawer mirror top bureau; highly sought after cross collectible, attracting the interest of salesman sample collectors, toy collectors, doll collectors and those expanding a collection of folk art and Americana.
Dimensions: 19″ high x 13 5/8″ wide x 8″ deep