Chest with drawer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small chest belongs to a group of painted furniture associated with the Guilford-Saybrook area of coastal Connecticut. The founder of this tradition may have been Charles Guillam (1671–1727), who had emigrated from Britain by 1703. An inventory taken at his death listed ocher and umber pigments, “a painted chest with drawers,” “a parcel of collours,” and partially completed furniture and cabinetmaking tools, suggesting that he was both the maker and the decorator of his furniture.

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