Armchair

Samuel McIntire

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This square-back armchair is one of a set of twelve chairs made for the parlor of the Peirce-Nichols house on Federal Street in Salem, Massachusetts. In 1801, the architect Samuel McIntire was commissioned by Jerathamael Peirce, Salem merchant and shipowner, to remodel the parlor. While McIntire, who was charged with the complete decorative program of the house including the interior, relied on Sheraton's published patterns for the design of this armchair; it is possible, being a carver, that he executed the carved bowknots, bellflowers, and punched-snowflake background, one of his favorite details. The design of the chair is derived from plate 33 of Thomas Sheraton's “Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book” (London, 1793).

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art