Ewer

Faience Manufacturing Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

At 22 inches high, this ewer is one of the five largest known vessels produced by the Faience Manufacturing Company, and this example displays one of at least four different motifs associated with this form. Rising from a bulbous double-gourd-form body, stacked elements that display classicizing ornament emphasize the ewer's elongated form. Opposing foliate scrolls, joined by an illusionistic gilt ceramic ring, form the dramatic handle. Meticulously painted polychromatic dolphins amid foliate scrolls and arabesques embellish the body.

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