A toilet service is a set of objects for use at the dressing table. The term is usually reserved for large luxury sets from the 17th to 19th centuries, with toilet set or vanity set[1] used for later or simpler sets. Historically, services were made in metal, ceramics, and other materials, for both men and women, though male versions were generally much smaller. The rich had services in gold, silver, or silver-gilt. The contents vary, but typically include a mirror, one or more small ewers and basins, two candlesticks, and an assortment of bowls, boxes, caskets, and other containers.[2] One or more brushes and a pin-cushion, often as a top to a box, are often included. The sets usually came with a custom-made travelling case, and some services were especially designed for travelling.
The toilet service was the most important item of "dressing plate", as opposed to table plate, and was often a gift upon marriage;[3] sometimes augmented on the birth of children.[4] It was normally the personal property of the wife. The morning levée was sometimes a semi-public occasion for great persons in the early modern period, and the toilet service might be seen by many people.[5]
The US market for vanity sets had almost entirely disappeared by 1937[6] due to changes in the women's lifestyles and associated simplified hairdos.
- ^ Federal Supplement, Volume 70. West Publishing Company. 1947. p. 1013. OCLC 1569040.
- ^ MOS
- ^ Glanville, 76, 98
- ^ Louvre
- ^ Glory, 7–8; Adlin, 5–7. Adlin gives Madame de Pompadour much of the credit for this, but for example Hogarth's Marriage à-la-mode: 4. The Toilette is from 1743, before she became at all notable at court. See also the Louvre "washbowl" page.
- ^ Beaujot 2008, p. 165.