Pier table

Charles-Honoré Lannuier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The gilded caryatids on this example make it the most overtly Grecian of Lannuier's square pier tables. Based on the carved marble figures of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis in Athens, the caryatids were cast in lead and treated with a gilded surface. They may have been made in a mold taken from a French bronze lighting device of a type similar in quality to the imported bronze clocks that Lannuier is known to have sold in his store. The gilded surface of the paw feet, brass ornaments along the apron, and rosettes along the base complement the figures in a pleasing manner.

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