Salt box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pewter was the cheaper alternative to silver, which remained unattainable to most people during the sixteenth century. In contrast, by the 1530s, all except the poorest members of society owned at least a couple of pewter household wares. Composed mainly of tin, usually with small amounts of lead or copper (in ratios regulated by local guilds), pewter was soft, malleable, and easily ornamented with engraved decoration, as here. A vessel like this one—which would originally have included a lid—was made from molds, which were apparently regularly lent between pewterers and brass casters in Augsburg and Nuremberg. [Elizabeth Cleland, 2017]

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