Cabinet

Herter Brothers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing-room cabinet exemplifies the ivory and gold palette Herter Brothers favored in drawing rooms designed for their wealthy clients, such as Oliver Ames, industrialist and governor of Massachusetts, for whom this piece was made. Typical of Herter Brothers, this cabinet suggests a sophisticated amalgam of sources. It employs decorative elements derived from eighteenth-century Neoclassicism, such as the reeded columns, dentil moldings, and carved swags, while also referencing the contemporary arts of Japan in its asymmetrical side shelves and in the gold-flecked surface inspired by lacquerware.

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