Wine Cup

Joseph Foster

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the end of the eighteenth century the traditional bell-shaped wine cup on baluster stem had evolved into an even more restrained model. Here, the ovoid body, horizontal ribbed ornament, and bright-cut engraving reflect the neoclassical idiom. Tall, cylindrical stems on stepped, circular bases and domed covers with acorn finials accentuate the verticality and dignity of this vessel and its mate (33.120.231a, b), which were made around 1800 for Boston’s Brattle Street Church. The mark of Joseph Foster, the pair's maker, appears on a considerable quantity of Boston-area church plate.

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