Center Table

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

With its profusion of scrolls punctuated by carved and pierced fruit and flowers, this center table exemplifies the fashionable Rococo Revival style, variously described at the time as "Modern French" or "Antique French." It likely was made in John Henry Belter’s New York City cabinetmaking shop. Center tables were focal points of mid-nineteenth-century parlors. The marble tops provided a durable surface on which to place oil lamps and beverages as well as books or other objects for display. The brass castors on the table’s feet facilitated easy movement across the room to accommodate a range of activities and gatherings.

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