Watch

Jean Antoine Lépine

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lépine was appointed clockmaker (Horloger du Roy) to Louis XV (1710–1774) probably about the end of 1765 or the beginning of 1766, and he included the appointment in his signature until about 1790 or 1792, when revolutionary activity in France made a mention of the monarch impolitic, if not dangerous. In the period leading up to the Revolution, his watches became famous for their slim elegance and increasingly inventive technology. The Museum’s watch is a simpler product of the 1760s, displaying Lépine’s effort to decrease the space between the plates of the movement while still allowing room for the verge escapement.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art