Jewelry Designs in Gold and Rose Gold, Plate 5 from "L'Art de la Bijouterie"

Jewelry Designs in Gold and Rose Gold, Plate 5 from "L'Art de la Bijouterie"

Jean Francois Barousse

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate with designs for jewelry in gold and rose gold, combined with decorations in enamel and pearls. The plate contains ten designs presented on a green background. At top are depicted a bracelet, a ring and a necklace. The lower half shows five pendants, of which two for a watch chain, and three for a necklace, as well as two pins, one decorated with a frog playing cymbals and the other with a satyr playing cards. This plate is part of a portfolio with designs for jewelry other small items in precious metals produced by the printer Barousse. According to the frontispiece, 24 plates with designs are issued annually. Within the portfolio the color lithographs are combined with a translucent sheet of paper on which the silhouettes of the objects have been printed. These would make it easier for artists to transfer the design for execution.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jewelry Designs in Gold and Rose Gold, Plate 5 from "L'Art de la Bijouterie"Jewelry Designs in Gold and Rose Gold, Plate 5 from "L'Art de la Bijouterie"Jewelry Designs in Gold and Rose Gold, Plate 5 from "L'Art de la Bijouterie"Jewelry Designs in Gold and Rose Gold, Plate 5 from "L'Art de la Bijouterie"Jewelry Designs in Gold and Rose Gold, Plate 5 from "L'Art de la Bijouterie"

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.