Chest of drawers

The Symonds Shop

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the 1670s, the chest-of-drawers form, first made in Boston, had spread to neighboring Massachusetts port towns. Within the architectural framework of this chest, this is an intricate play of geometric shapes created by applied mitered moldings that oppose and echo one another. Such complexly patterned surface decoration links a group of furniture with histories of ownership in Salem.

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