Art Deco Brazilian wood marquetry dressing table set

About this piece

A dressing table set of three: a Victorian tray, an Art Deco jewellery box, and a Caithness glass atomiser — the sort of trio that looks like it was assembled by someone with excellent taste and no interest in matching sets for matching's sake.

The tray is Brazilian, made around 1890, in cherry wood with a central inlaid panel of burr walnut. Flip it over and there's still a label reading "Paranaense, São Paulo" — the kind of small detail that turns an object into a story rather than just a shape. The jewellery box is English and Art Deco, made around the 1920s: mahogany, rounded in a baluster form, with a lid given over entirely to marquetry — satinwood, fruitwoods, boxwood, and ebony, all coaxed into one design by someone who clearly wasn't in a hurry.

Then there's the atomiser, which refuses to blend in quietly. Hand-blown by Caithness Glass in Scotland around the 1960s, its body swirls blue and navy under brass fittings. Caithness set up shop in the far north of Scotland specifically to bring skilled glassmaking work to a remote corner of the country, and by the 1960s that ambition had paid off — the glass had a reputation of its own, well beyond souvenir status.

Put together, the three don't so much match as get along famously — each one striking enough to hold a room by itself, better still sharing a dressing table.

Tray made in Brazil, c. 1890's (38 x 23 x 3 cm); box made in England, c. 1920's (5 x 15 cm); perfume bottle made by Caithness Glass, Scotland, c. 1960's (11 x 7 cm)

Condition notes

Great overall condition. Some light wear to brass fitting of bottle; light crazing to the box lid; several large cracks and small losses to inlay of the tray.