Snuffbox

D. B., Stettin, Germany

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Appreciated for its intense blue color enriched with shimmering bits of pyrite, lapis lazuli was long mined exclusively in Afghanistan until deposits were discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia during the eighteenth century. The frame of this snuffbox consists of four different tones of gold, which were achieved by alloying the gold with small amounts of other metals.

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