| Few pieces of furniture have revealed more about leisure pursuits, popular taste, and changing social customs than the dressing table, or vanity. Metropolitan Vanities: The History of the Dressing Table at The Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the evolution of the modern dressing table, with some great example from the permanent collection. The age-old impulse to be attractive or fashionable informs and animates much of the dressing table’s lengthy design history, as it does many of the objects associated with thetoilette, the ritual in which the dressing table reached new heights of elegance and sophistication. The exhibition provides an overview of the origins and development of the dressing table from antiquity to the present day. | 
Armand-Albert Rateau (French, 1882-1938) Dressing Table ca.1925 Bronze, basalt, and mirror glass
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Mechanical table Jean-François Oeben (1721–1763) and Roger Vandercruse, called Lacroix (French, 1728–1799) ca. 1761–63
Raymond Loewy (American, born France, 1893–1986) Valet 2000/50 dressing cabinet (DF2000 series) 1969
Tiffany & Co. (American, 1837–present) Comb ca. 1910 Tortoiseshell, platinum, diamonds
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