Plateau

John W. Forbes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the early nineteenth century, it was the height of fashion to decorate the center of the dining table with a large, mirrored plateau designed to hold ornaments or accessories of service. This splendid example is one of only two such American plateaux known—both marked by Forbes and similar in design.

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