Sheet with Four Designs for Relief Decorations on Arms: Two Large Hilts for a Sword and a Dagger, and the Ornaments for the Tips of the Sheaths

Sheet with Four Designs for Relief Decorations on Arms: Two Large Hilts for a Sword and a Dagger, and the Ornaments for the Tips of the Sheaths

Pierre Woeiriot de Bouzey II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Horizontal sheet with four designs for relief decorations for arms by Pierre Woeiriot. On the eft side of the sheet, the hilt of a sword is depicted, with terminal figures on the quillons and knuckle guard and an imprisoned satyr on its grip. On the right side of the sheet a smaller hilt is depicted, likely for a dagger, with a figure of a zephyr on the grip. Two smaller designs, depicted left and right of the dagger hilt represent the decorations for the tips of the sheaths.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sheet with Four Designs for Relief Decorations on Arms: Two Large Hilts for a Sword and a Dagger, and the Ornaments for the Tips of the SheathsSheet with Four Designs for Relief Decorations on Arms: Two Large Hilts for a Sword and a Dagger, and the Ornaments for the Tips of the SheathsSheet with Four Designs for Relief Decorations on Arms: Two Large Hilts for a Sword and a Dagger, and the Ornaments for the Tips of the SheathsSheet with Four Designs for Relief Decorations on Arms: Two Large Hilts for a Sword and a Dagger, and the Ornaments for the Tips of the SheathsSheet with Four Designs for Relief Decorations on Arms: Two Large Hilts for a Sword and a Dagger, and the Ornaments for the Tips of the Sheaths

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.