Design Drawing

Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing is unique to the American Wing's collection because, unlike the other design drawings from the various Tiffany studios, it depicts an individual enamel object. In fact, it is the design drawing for the Museum's plum enamel bowl, which was originally in Tiffany's personal collection. The drawing illustrates the round repoussé enamel bowl decorated with plums and leaves in naturalistic and luminous tones. Various notations on the drawing list a numerical and letter code, enamel formulas, the total number of hours required to manufacture the bowl (50), and the name Julia Munson, the head of the enamel department.

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