MetPublications

Lustrous, malleable, and durable, silver has been worked since antiquity into objects of beauty and utility. Of benefit to both the arts and the sciences, it is most familiar as a precious metal used for creating hollowware, flatware, jewelry, medals, and coins. Early American Silver vividly conjures the lives of America’s earliest colonists, many of whom transported precious family possessions across the Atlantic to the New World. As comforting reminders of their former lives and emblems of status and wealth, objects of silver graced dining rooms, tea tables, and houses of worship. Pride of ownership was expressed not only in the display of silver but also in the coats of arms, monograms, and inscriptions with which it was engraved. The stories behind these objects and the craftsmen who made them offer engaging social and historical narratives. Nearly a century after the publication of C. Louise Avery’s classic American Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, this catalogue presents the finest colonial and federal-period silver in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The authors have studied and catalogued these objects anew, using advanced scientific analysis as well as traditional connoisseurship to explore the distinctive contributions of silversmiths, patrons, and engravers. Early American Silver also addresses patterns of ownership; retailers and specialized craftsmen; and issues of condition, dating, attribution,and provenance. Whether one is a specialist, a student, or a generalist, the reader will find a wealth of information and compelling new insights in this beautifully illustrated volume.

The second volume in a special two-part edition of Recent Acquisitions, this Bulletin celebrates works acquired by the Museum in 2019 and 2020, many of which were gifts bestowed in honor of the Museum’s 150th anniversary year. Highlights of this volume include Jean-Baptise Carpeaux’s astonishing portrayal of an African woman in the marble sculpture Why Born Enslaved!, a monumental storage jar by African American potter and poet David Drake, an exquisite lacquer mirror case depicting an 1838 meeting between the crown prince of Iran and the tsar of Russia, and Carmen Herrera’s abstract work dating to 1949, Iberic. This publication also honors the many generous contributions from donors that make possible the continued growth of The Met's collection.

Every two years the fall issue of The Met's quarterly Bulletin celebrates notable recent acquisitions and gifts to the collection. Highlights of Recent Acquisitions 2020–2022 include the Mantuan Roundel by Gian Marco Cavalli, a recently rediscovered tour de force from the early Renaissance; the archive of photographer James Van Der Zee, one of the most celebrated chroniclers of Black life in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance; a pair of sculptures by the renowned contemporary American artist Robert Gober; Thomas Sully’s magisterial portrait of Queen Victoria; and Poussin’s Agony in the Garden, one of only two accepted works by the artist in oil on copper. This publication also honors the many generous contributions from donors that make possible the continued growth of The Met collection.