Copper metallic textile

Associated Artists

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Before the 1880s it was difficult for American decorators to obtain quality fabrics from local textile manufacturers. By working with the Cheney Brothers mill (1838-1955), Candace Wheeler (1827-1923) was able to create innovative new textiles that fit her artistic vision. Among them were metallic cloths, which she used as the ground fabric for some of her most luxurious hangings. This copper-toned example was woven from a warp of tan silk and a weft of copper threads composed of finely cut strips of copper sheeting wound around a red-dyed cotton core. Wheeler and the Cheney Brothers also produced metallic cloths with the appearance of silver and gold.

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