Joint stool

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Joint stools provided basic everyday seating in seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century households. The vitality of the baluster turnings on this stool make it an outstanding example of the William and Mary style. Its high seat made it convenient for a sitter to rest his or her feet on the stretcher of the table it was pulled up to for dining.

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