Joaillerie: Album of Jewelry Designs, Page 11

Anonymous, French

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eleventh page of a small album containing drawings with jewelry designs copied after the prints by L. van der Cruycen, "Nouveau Livre de Desseins..." (New Book of Designs...), published in Paris in 1770. This page contains a design for an aigrette, characteristic of the style in vogue during the reign of Louis XVI in France, displaying a serendipitous flavor, with asymmetrical forms, "rocaille" and stylized natural motifs, and heavily decorated with flowers, ribbons and tassels, thus representing the taste of the Rococo style, which was fashionable in France and Europe during the eighteenth century. The elaborately carved forms presented in the designs were particularly sought after during the third quarter of the eighteenth century, and were to be accomplished by skilled artisans who would work out the decorations by hand. The design for an aigrette formed with branches of stylized leaves, wheat ears and exotic flowers that are tied together by a ribbon bowknot. The design in this drawing is a copy after plate number 8 of the album of engravings by Van der Cruycen.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art