Pier Table

Joseph Meeks & Sons

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the early 1830s, neoclassical furniture designs featured simpler and bolder forms that were often finished in rich mahogany and rosewood veneers. New technologies significantly impacted furniture construction. The introduction of the circular veneer saw, for example, allowed cabinetmakers to slice veneers—often of imported exotic woods—much thinner than before, which made them easier to apply to curved surfaces. This pier table with its exuberant scrolled supports is an example of the fashionable furniture produced in New York City and disseminated throughout the nation, thanks in part to the circulation of printed designs and advertisements and rapidly expanding transportation systems.

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