Sofa

Sofa

William Hancock

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The design for this Greek Revival sofa was probably taken from the "Grecian Sofa" in plate two of Thomas Sheraton's "Cabinet Encyclopedia" (London, 1805). A sofa similar to this one embellished William Hancock's advertisements during the 1820s. The dating of this sofa correlates to an item in Boston's "Evening Gazette" during March 1827, in which Hancock's "Furniture and Upholstery Ware House" was located at the same address as on this sofa label; in 1830 he described his firm as "late of Market Street." Hancock, active in Boston from about 1820 through 1849, however, may have only upholstered this sofa, as there is no evidence that he did anything other than upholster and sell the work of others.


The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.