Étagère

Alexander Roux

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

At the New York workshop of Alexander Roux, over a hundred highly skilled craftsmen—many of whom were immigrants like Roux himself—designed, carved, and assembled elaborate, high-style furniture such as this étagère. The descriptor étagère is the French word for a multi-shelved piece of furniture, underscoring the appeal French associations held for consumers. By the mid-nineteenth century, middle- and upper-class Americans sought to display decorative objects in their homes to showcase not only the family’s wealth but also their worldliness and sophistication. The étagère was most often placed in the parlor, where guests could admire the carefully chosen selection of ceramics, glass, or silver.

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