Side Chair

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This richly carved Gothic-splat New York chair is part of a set or sets of chairs that descended in the Verplanck family of New York. In addition, the museum owns an armchair and six other side chairs (see 40.137.1; 62.250.1–.3; 63.22.1-.2; 1984.287 for set). All of the chairs exhibit close similarities and may have been made in one shop, although close examination reveals splats from two different templates, carving by two different hands, and the incised marks of two separate sets. The carving of crest rail and splat on this chair matches that on the armchair and four of the side chairs (1984.287, 62.250.1–.3, and 63.22.1). The seat has been reupholstered in a reproduction of fabric that descended in the Verplanck family.

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