High chest of drawers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

European artisans flocked to the British colonies and plied their knowledge of foreign fashions to suit the tastes of local patrons. This chest’s scrolled pediment with a figural finial bust resembles plates in The Gentlemen and Cabinet Maker’s Director (1754) by British craftsman Thomas Chippendale. Similarly, the serpent-and-swan motif on the bottom drawer is based on a design by London carver Thomas Johnson in A New Book of Ornaments (1762). As true of period portraiture, furnishings reveal colonists’ awareness of European trends. The owner of this chest would have neatly stowed their couture and household linens safely in its drawers.

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