Joined armchair

Joined armchair

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The use of black walnut characterizes furniture made in southeastern Pennsylvania in this period. Unlike New England-paneled chairs, which were carved, this chair is ornamented only by its sawn crest rail featuring partial crescents flanking a mushroom-shaped motif. The design is similar to that of crest rails on chairs produced in Cheshire and southern Lancashire in England, suggesting the influence of immigrant craftsmen.


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.