What is "toilet service"

Toilet \Toi"let\, n. [F. toilette, dim. of toile cloth. See Toil a net.]

1. A covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a table in a chamber or a dressing room.

2. A dressing table.
   --Pope.

3. Act or mode of dressing, or that which is arranged in dressing; attire; dress; as, her toilet is perfect.

   Toilet glass, a looking-glass for a toilet table or for a dressing room.

   Toilet service, Toilet set, earthenware, glass, and other utensils for a dressing room.

   Toilet table, a dressing table; a toilet. See def. 2 above.

   To snake one's toilet, to dress one's self; especially, to dress one's self carefully.

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" 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. 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; sometimes augmented on the birth of children. 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.

The word toilet comes from the French toile meaning cloth, and toilette ("little cloth") first came to mean the morning routine of washing, tidying hair, and shaving and making up as appropriate, from the cloth often spread on the dressing-table where this was done. This meaning spread into English as "toilet" in the 17th century; only later did "toilet" start to compete with "lavatory" as a euphemism. The Oxford English Dictionary records "toilet" in English first, from 1540, as a term for a cloth used to wrap clothes in, then from 1662 (by John Evelyn) for a gold toilet service, and before 1700 for a range of related meanings (a towel, the cloth on a dressing-table, the act of using a dressing-table, and so on), but not for a lavatory, which did not come into use until the 19th century.