
Sideboard Table
Charles-Honoré Lannuier
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Flame-grain mahogany veneers contrast with straight-grain mahogany crossbanding to enliven the facade of this massive architectural sideboard from the shop of the Parisian émigré cabinetmaker Charles-Honoré Lannuier. The "French" sideboard, first made in the United States around 1810, became the predominant dining room storage and display furniture form in American homes in the first half of the nineteenth century. The sideboard's name derives from its close relationship to the French Empire desserte, a similarly massive form with four cupboard doors, a frieze of drawers, and columns terminating in lion's-paw feet.
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.