Candlestick

Samuel Siervent

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The wealthy colonial merchant Samuel Verplanck owned several pieces of London silver, including this floral-decorated candlestick and its mate (41.130.2), which represent the height of English rococo styling. Samuel was sent to study banking in Holland, where he met and married his cousin Judith Crommelin. The couple returned to New York in 1763 and moved into the family’s elegant Wall Street home. Verplanck family silver, furniture, and paintings now in the Metropolitan’s collection exemplify the imported luxury goods owned by prominent colonists.

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