All works › National Gallery of Art

Writing and Toilet Table (table mécanique)

Attributed to Jean-François Oeben, c. 1750/1755

78 cm × 73 cm

About the size of a bathroom mirror. You would need 2 of them to reach a person's height.

Against things you know the size of

Height: 73 cm
Width: 78 cm
Medium: veneered on oak with marquetry of tulipwood, kingwood, sycamore, ebony, boxwood, and other woods, some of them stained green and with traces of other colors; gilded bronze mounts
Kind: Decorative Art
Where the measurement comes from: Measured by the museum. The dimension is the one recorded by the institution that holds the work.
Credit: Widener Collection

Five questions, answered from its own record. What is AGAI?

How big is it?: 78 cm × 73 cm. About the size of a bathroom mirror. Measured by the museum.
When was it made, and when is it everyone’s?: Made c. 1750/1755. It is in the public domain, and National Gallery of Art publishes it for open use.
Whose is it?: Everyone’s to see. It is held by National Gallery of Art: Widener Collection.
How was it made?: Veneered on oak with marquetry of tulipwood, kingwood, sycamore, ebony, boxwood, and other woods, some of them stained green and with traces of other colors; gilded bronze mounts.
Who speaks for it?: Its record at National Gallery of Art. Measured by the museum. This gallery adds nothing it cannot cite.

This work is in the reference only. The gallery hangs a selection of the collection at real size.

One email. The smallest thing in the collection, the largest, and two that hang well together.

Scored on colour, shape, era and scale, the same way the gallery hangs them.