Watch

Jean Rousseau

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Constantijn Huygens wrote to his brother, the brilliant mathematician Christiaan Huygens, from Geneva on January 5, 1650, that he had just bought a watch "á la mode" with a case of rock crystal that permitted a view of the movement such as one would see if the case were made of ice. Indeed, Geneva was well-known for its rock crystal watchcases made from a local source of the mineral. The movement of this watch has a verge escapement, and it is probably the product of the younger Jean Rousseau, a son of a master clockmaker in Geneva and the great-grandfather of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

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