Slab table

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is probably one of the two “marble slabs” purchased by General John Cadwalader (1742–1786) at an auction in 1769 for use in his house on Second Street, which he furnished with an ornateness unparalleled elsewhere in Philadelphia. In their plasticity, the unbroken serpentine curves of the legs and skirt rail are fully in the spirit of the French Rococo. However, the brilliant naturalistic carving is purely English, probably the work of a London-trained carver just arrived in Philadelphia.

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