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| American decorative arts | |
|---|---|
| Name | American decorative arts |
| Period | 17th–21st century |
| Regions | North America |
American decorative arts are material culture forms produced in the present-day United States and its colonial predecessors encompassing furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, textiles, and folk objects. The field intersects with studies of Colonial America, the United States national narrative, indigenous artistic production, transatlantic exchange, and industrialization, informing museum practice at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Scholarship draws on archives like the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the papers of collectors and dealers including Henry Francis du Pont and Marblehead–era inventories.
Scholars define the subject through objects and makers documented in records from Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth Colony to New York City and New Orleans, engaging with debates shaped by exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago and contributions from historians such as Wendell Garrett and Ruth M. Katz. Discursive frameworks reference transatlantic currents involving William and Mary furniture, Queen Anne pieces, and influences traced to workshops in London, Amsterdam, and Paris. Curatorial categorizations often rely on provenance tied to estates like Mount Vernon and Monticello, and legal instruments such as wills found in county courthouses like those in Richmond, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina.
Periods commonly cited include the colonial period, the Federalist Era, the Antebellum South, the Gilded Age, and the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States. Stylistic labels reference Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton forms, as well as vernacular expressions tied to Shaker communities and Amish makers. Later developments incorporate Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and mid-20th-century modernism associated with names like Charles and Ray Eames and institutions such as the Bauhaus émigrés in American practice.
Common materials include hardwoods like walnut, maple, and cherry, metals such as silver and brass, glass produced by firms like Steuben Glass Works, and ceramics linked to manufactories such as Rookwood Pottery. Techniques range from joinery documented in carpenter manuals of Philadelphia cabinetmakers to silversmithing practices exemplified by Paul Revere and the Huguenot tradition, and textile production evident in quilts from Amish communities and hooked rugs from New England. Industrial processes introduced by entrepreneurs like Eli Whitney and companies such as Lowell, Massachusetts mills changed production alongside artisan practices in studios like those of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Canonical objects include high-style case furniture represented in collections from Winterthur Museum and dining service silver like that of Paul Revere, alongside ceramics such as Edgefield pottery and glasswork from Maker's Mark—and vernacular artifacts including Shaker boxes, WPA folk art projects, and Native American basketry from tribes like the Pomo and Navajo Nation. Decorative ensembles often appear in period rooms reconstructed by curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, and in house museums such as The Breakers and The Elms.
Regional distinctions emerge in New England coastal furniture tied to Salem, Massachusetts and Portsmouth, New Hampshire makers, Mid-Atlantic silver and chairmaking centered on Philadelphia and New York City, Southern plantation furnishings associated with Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia, and frontier material culture from regions including Kentucky and Tennessee. Indigenous traditions include Pueblo pottery from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Haida carved boxes from the Pacific Northwest, and coral and beadwork practices maintained in the Florida Keys. Immigrant communities—Irish in Boston, German in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and Scandinavian in Minnesota—produced textile and furniture traditions preserved in local historical societies and museums like the Minnesota Historical Society.
Notable makers and workshops range from individual artisans—Paul Revere, Daniel Marot–influenced cabinetmakers, John Henry Belter, Gustav Stickley—to firms such as Herter Brothers, A. H. Davenport Company, and Grueby Faience Company. Patrons span colonial elites like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Gilded Age financiers including J. P. Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt, and municipal commissions from entities such as the Works Progress Administration. Dealer networks, auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's, and publications including The Magazine Antiques have shaped markets and scholarly attention.
Preservation relies on conservation techniques practiced at institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, while collecting histories involve philanthropists like Henry Clay Frick and foundations including the National Endowment for the Arts. Major public collections reside at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Conferences and scholarship are advanced by organizations like the American Alliance of Museums and the Society of American Archivists, and exhibition lending, provenance research, and repatriation debates reference case law in the United States Court of Appeals and policies at the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
Category:Decorative arts