Armchair

Auguste-Emile Rinquet-Leprince

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the 1840s, many well-to-do New Yorkers preferred French furniture to that made in their native city. In 1844, Mrs. Samuel Jaudon of New York wrote to her friend Mrs. James C. Colles that "we on this side feel as if everything [is] so much handsomer, and better, and desirable that comes from Paris." Upon orders from New York clients, Parisian cabinetmaker and decorator Ringuet-Leprince shipped entire rooms of furniture, carpets, looking glasses, wallpapers, decorative objects, and sculpture. This side chair is part of a formal drawing room suite that was custom-made by Ringuet-Leprince as part of a suite for the abovementioned Colles family. The suite includes a pair of sofas, four armchairs, four side chairs, a firescreen, and a table (see 69.262.1-10). In 1850, the Colles' daughter, Frances, married John Taylor Johnston, a New York railroad executive who later served as the first president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1870 to 1889. The suite of furniture descended in the family, original upholstery intact, and, except for two armchairs, was given to the Museum in 1969.

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