Side Chair

Duncan Phyfe

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As craftsmen transitioned from the Early to the Late Grecian style (the latter is also referred to as the Grecian Plain Style), they began to incorporate more curvilinear shapes and new motifs. With a scrolled stay rail and an inverted lotus-shaped splat, this design is more abstract than the clearly delineated lyre-back chair attributed to Phyfe (65.188.2). This example is thought to come from Phyfe's shop based on the quality of the workmanship and a close stylistic connection to a set of chairs manufactured for Phyfe's daughter, Eliza Phyfe Vail (1801–1890).

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