Toddy Jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The initials ET in gold under the spout of this jug are those of Edward Tilghman (1750–1815), a prominent lawyer in Philadelphia. This Chinese export jug was given to Tilghman by his uncle, Benjamin Chew Wilcocks, who originally ordered four jugs similarly decorated with portrait busts of George Washington in grisaille. The portrait of Washington was faithfully copied by a Chinese artist from an engraving by David Edwin after Gilbert Stuart.

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