Mirror knob

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The shape of the balloon, its upper half covered by netting, indicates this is a hydrogen balloon. The cityscape with a view of Saint Paul’s Cathedral depicts a flight over London, possibly the 1784 flight by the Italian diplomat and ‘daredevil’ Vincenzo Lunardi. He launched his balloon in front of some 200,000 spectators at London’s Artillery Ground, floating with a dog, a cat, and a caged pigeon for 24 miles into Hertfordshire.

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