Claret jug

James Dixon & Sons

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The British manufacturer James Dixon & Sons was the largest producer of Britannia metal during the nineteenth century. Britannia metal is a tin alloy similar to pewter, but contains a higher percentage of antimony and less copper or lead. This composition made the metal more lustrous and malleable. Britannia metal became popular in Victorian domestic wares for its affordability, when the market for pewter wares experienced a revival.

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