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12,435 results for furniture

Essay

Shaker Furniture

March 1, 2012

By Nicholas C. Vincent

Shaker communities were largely self-sufficient: in their attempt to separate themselves from the outside world and to create a heaven-on-earth, members grew their own food, constructed their own buildings, and manufactured their own tools and household furnishings.

Essay

French Furniture in the Eighteenth Century: Seat Furniture

October 1, 2003

By Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide

Since only the menuisier was obliged to sign his work, the names of the other craftsmen are, unfortunately, rarely known.

Essay

French Furniture in the Eighteenth Century: Case Furniture

October 1, 2003

By Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide

One of the most gifted and successful cabinetmakers of the second half of the eighteenth century, Riesener was the favorite of Queen Marie Antoinette.

Publication

American Japanned Furniture

As European and American interest in Asian art grew in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, Western consumers coveted expensive lacquerware for its gloss, durability, and rich ornament. This edition of the Bulletin examines the evolving discourse surrounding japanned furniture, an artform cultivated by European and North American tradesmen that was inspired by luxury lacquer items from China and Japan. Using resin from native conifers or imported sandarac, copal, and shellac, they imitated the medium and the motifs used in traditional lacquer objects. Featuring more than a dozen examples of japanned chests, tables, and mirrors, American Japanned Furniture discusses the works’ patronage and aesthetic origins while also uncovering a new artistic attribution to Thomas Johnston for key examples in The Met’s Collection– a discovery which not only sheds new light on Johnston’s work, but also helps shape a new understanding of the Museum’s japanned furniture.

Essay

The Golden Age of French Furniture in the Eighteenth Century

October 1, 2003

By Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide

French furniture of this period was the collaborative effort of various artists and craftsmen who worked according to strictly enforced guild regulations.

Exhibition

The Calculated Curve: Eighteenth-Century American Furniture

Ongoing

The 2024 reinstallation of the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Galleries of Eighteenth-Century American Art of The Met’s American Wing elevates a pivotal moment in American furniture design between 1720 and 1770. This fresh installation encourages us t…

Essay

American Furniture, 1620–1730: The Seventeenth-Century and William and Mary Styles

March 1, 2010

By Nicholas C. Vincent

Furniture in the early Baroque, or William and Mary, style broke away from the solid, horizontal massing and rectilinear outlines of the preceding era.

Press Release

Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age

Publication

Chippendale's Director: A Manifesto of Furniture Design

Published to coincide with the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Thomas Chippendale, England’s most famous cabinetmaker, this issue of the Bulletin addresses the history of Chippendale works at The Met. Morrison H. Heckscher recounts the designer’s meteoric rise from rural obscurity to the heights of the London luxury trade, crediting that remarkable success to the publication of the Chippendale Director, an instructive book on furniture design and ornament. The text analyzes the Museum’s rare collection of drawings by Chippendale, revealing a gifted and highly imaginative designer who mastered what today would be called branding. Illustrating a wide selection of the Director drawings alongside furniture inspired by the Director or actually made in Chippendale’s shop, this Bulletin features works of art that attest to the museum’s century-long infatuation with drawing, prints, books, and furniture in the Chippendale style.

Essay