Easy chair

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although easy chairs were widely produced in the eighteenth century, few examples from the early nineteenth century survive. The design of this chair is based on one that appeared in George Hepplewhite’s “Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide” (London, 1788). The substitution of turned front legs for the square, tapered legs specified by Hepplewhite implies that the chair was not produced until 1810–15, when rounded legs became more fashionable.

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