Candlestick

Adrian Bancker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Early American candlesticks are extraordinarily rare; typically candlesticks that graced colonial American homes were imported from England or the Continent. For these, Adrian Bancker, a New York silversmith of Dutch descent, chose a traditional English form, yet their construction and appearance are unmistakably colonial North American. Although Bancker’s known oeuvre is small, the Met owns a significant collection of his silver, including a tankard (24.109.4), beaker (33.120.104), porringer (33.120.326), cream pot (44.88), punch bowl (48.15) and set of casters (1972.233.1–.3).

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