Card Table

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The form of this table is most unusual. The table top is in two pieces: one a drop leaf, the other lifting up to provide access to a storage well, presumably for storing card-playing accoutrements. While it is possible for the entire top to be vertical, the lack of any device to support the upper half in an upright position shows that the table was not intended to be stored in a corner. The table is unquestionably from Rhode Island, not only because of its Newport provenance, but also because of its unmistakable Newport features, especially the use of dense, purple-hued mahogany and maple as a secondary wood.

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