Presents selections from the Index of American Design at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which consists of watercolor renderings of American decorative arts objects from the colonial period through the 19th century. Features renderings of American furniture from about 1650 to about 1850. Notes that American furniture differed from English prototypes in that American furniture was simpler in both form and decoration. Discusses the styles shown and links to the home page of the National Gallery.

This book presents watercolor renderings along with a selection of the artifacts in the Index of American Design, a visual archive of decorative, folk, and popular arts made in America from the colonial period to about 1900. Three essays explore the history, operation, and ambitions of the Index of American Design, examine folk art collecting in America during the early decades of the twentieth century, and consider the Index's role in the search for a national cultural identity in the early twentieth-century United States.

Features the Index of American Design, a collection of watercolor renderings of American decorative arts objects from the colonial period through the 19th century housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Includes watercolors of costumes, dolls, folk arts of the Spanish southwest, furniture, metalwork, Pennsylvania German folk art, Shaker crafts, pottery, textiles, toys, and woodcarving.

This guide book is a complete and full description of the Gallery of Art in Washington, USA. It describes in detail its rules, staff, visiting times and its collection of works of art. There are diagrams of the first and second floors. The art works are divided by their type with a chapter assigned to each. The book also gives a brief history of the gallery itself, explaining how it first came to be and outlining plans for its proposed expansion.

The Metropolitan Museum's preeminent collection of early colonial furniture is expertly documented in this long-awaited publication. It covers the full spectrum of furniture forms made during the 17th and early 18th centuries--from chairs and other seating to tables, boxes, various types of chests and cupboards, and desks. Each of the 141 objects is thoroughly described with detailed information on provenance, construction, condition, inscriptions, dimensions, and materials. Photographed anew in color for this volume, each piece is explicated in terms of the styles and craftsmanship of the period and is evaluated in light of comparative pieces in public and private collections throughout the country. One appendix contains photographic details of construction and decorative elements, and another has drawings of joints and moldings.