Dressing Table Accessories - RETIRED

[C.I.Fairfield]

Grade: D-

This set is perhaps the most trashy, overpriced thing AG has ever produced. I spent $10 on them on sale and still feel like I paid too much.

The set comes with that little slip warning parents and girls that they should take care when playing with the "high-quality" "authentic" accessories. Certainly - if plastic was invented in the 1700s!

Okay, enough rant.

Mirror: Plastic. The frame is silvered plastic, the mirror itself is plastic. It does reflect well, which is not always true of plastic mirrors, but you could honestly find a similarly sized mirror with a metal frame and real glass at the dollar store.

Flower Vase: Real porcelain, cute detail on the outside. However, there is a rubber thing stuck down in it to support the flowers, meaning that the only thing you can put in it is the flowers AG includes! The flowers are also nothing special, standard-issue fake things.

Powder box: Blue and white porcelain. Kind of cute, except my lid doesn't fit! It's slightly off and so doesn't sit properly. The powder puff is also very cute, but nothing that couldn't be made - and made better - with a little imagination.

Tablecloth: It's a cloth. The lace is nice.

Overall: definitely overpriced at full price. Probably overpriced on sale. Most of this could easily be replicated by pursuing dollar stores and craft shops.

Pictures to come.

[scrapy2]

I agree with the review listed. I also was very disappointed with the mirror. The mirror is cheap and all plastic...probably made this way so young children won't get hurt by it. You can do better by finding a similar size frame at a thrift store! I am okay with everything else. I actually really like the little powder container so that alone makes me want to keep the set. Luckily, I used free shipping code with the sale price. To me it is not worth paying the shipping cost to return this set since it was so cheap. If I had paid full price this set would of been sent back asap. There are much better accessories I would advise spending money on. Grade C

[skukla]

I also agree about the mirror in this set. Cheap and of significantly less quality then any thing else I have from AG. I included it with some other items (thanks to the replacement codes section of this site!) in an order to AG so 10.00 was all I paid but it was touch and go there about whether to send it back or not. The powder puff and box tipped the balance to keeping it. Love it! I only collect Addy's things but it seemed that colonial vintage might end up in 19th century Philadelphia so I'm collecting some of those items too (the Noah's Arc lives under Addy's bed and looks very much at home there.) Grade for Elizabeth's accessories: C-
Shanna

[Natasha]

Wow, I didn't dislike this set nearly as much as the other reviewers.

The mirror is definitely chintzy, but I consider the $10 I spent on it a fair price for the other items. I love the powder box. The vase is cute and the cloth is fine. The flowers are nothing special, but the quality seems comparable to the flowers in Samantha's Nature Paraphernalia or with Josefina's Herb Gathering Outfit.

I would give it a B- (although I'd probably rate it lower if I had paid full price).

[glasshalffull]

To me the original price for the set seemed outrageous, but I really adore it for $10. I got a couple of them, and use it for Samantha as well.

It is true that you can replicate things at the dollar store, but it saves me time and energy just to have this set perfect and ready-made. It makes such a lovely scene on Elizabeth's $14 night table (which combined with this set totals only $24 now--amazingly reasonable!)

I don't mind the lightness of the mirror. I now have such a large heavy collection that I'm actually appreciative that it's not one more item to add yet more weight to my unwieldly trunk.

I simply ended up liking it more than I thought I would. I understand everything that was written above, but I personally would miss it a lot if for some reason I didn't have it any more. So from me it gets an A. If you're thinking of getting it before it retires, I highly recommend it.

For full price: F-. Totally not worth $28. That is daylight robbery.
For $10: B+.
The main problem is the mirror. The plastic is good quality, but scratches easily. However, on the cloth it does slide a LOT. I disagree with saying that little girls would be safe with it in glass. High quality, thick glass, like in a real mirror, yes. Cheap glass? Probably not. It's a display piece here and if the table gets jolted even a little, off goes the mirror.

[EofA]

In 2005, I gasped at the $28 price tag. I know I was not alone in thinking that AG had lost their marketing minds (see above rants). That is why this set came up frequently on monthly online special. And why, three years after it was rolled out, it is slated for retirement and has been marked down first to $10 and finally to $8. At those prices, there was no reason not to grab this set.

Since we can only manage one colonial bedroom at our house, Felicity gets the set on her dressing table. As a successful merchant's daughter, and the granddaughter of a wealthy plantation owner, we figure we can justify her having a big fancy mirror and porcelain powder box.

We've had this set since 2007 and it's held up fine to careful target age range child's play. No problems. We've never had it slip off of the clothed table but ours is against a wall and maybe that makes a difference in stability. The mirror certainly reflects beautifully, and the other pieces are very pretty. I got a second set when it was on deep sale to go with my Stardust Classic vanity pieces, and they work well in a dainty modern bedroom.

For the original unrealistic asking price, this set rated a C. It just wasn't worth it. But appropriately priced on clearance, it gets an A- from me.

[skukla]