Oval table with falling leaves

Oval table with falling leaves

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This spectacular walnut table is as fine as any made in colonial America. Its multiple turned legs and gate-like supports create a virtual forest of baluster turnings. In stark contrast to the rectilinearity of seventeenth-century tables, the gentle elliptical curve of its top invited conviviality and conversation among those seated around it. The narrow width of leather and cane chairs of this period were ideal for use among the multiple legs on tables like these.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.