Teakettle

Cornelius Kierstede

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As in England and the Netherlands, tea drinking became increasingly popular in colonial America, creating a demand for specialized tea equipment such as teapots, sugar bowls, and creampots. This bold, pear-shaped teakettle with bail handle is an extremely rare form in American silver. Its decorative bird's-head spout, distinctively Dutch in inspiration, enlivens the unadorned body, which probably sat on an accompanying spirit-lamp stand. The kettle descended in the de Peyster family to Anne (Stevenson) Van Cortlandt (1774–1821)—whose initials are engraved in script on the side of the body—and, ultimately, to the donor.

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