Catcher

Ott and Brewer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This parian figure of a baseball player illustrates the exceptional skill and creativity of Isaac Broome, an important sculptor who designed wares for the Ott and Brewer firm in Trenton, New Jersey. Broome expertly depicted the catcher in action, capturing the moment he catches the ball. The details of the muscular limbs as well as the stitching on the uniform are also exceedingly well rendered. This model matches one of three figures that embellished the large "Baseball Vases" exhibited by Ott and Brewer at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. It is one of the artist’s most iconic works and arguably one of the most important pieces of nineteenth-century American porcelain.

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