Chest-on-Chest

Thomas Townsend

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thomas Townsend was a member of the famed Townsend-Goddard dynasty of Newport cabinetmakers and this is the only documented work by him. The raised panels above the top drawers, which echo the curves of the pediment, are characteristic of Newport manufacture. This chest-on-chest and another example from Philadelphia (1975.91) offer two elegant solutions to the challenge of integrating a scroll pediment with an architectural case.

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