Watch

Johan Ulrich Schmidt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Until 1702 the maker of small gold objects ornamented with enamel and set with jewels belonged to the same Augsburg guild of goldsmiths as the maker of silverware. As a general rule goldsmiths were exempt from marking their enameled objects owing to the danger of cracking the enamel. The maker of the jewel-like case of this tiny watch thus remains anonymous. The maker of the movement may have been the son of Nikolaus II Schmidt, but he was admitted to the guild of clockmakers as the son-in-law of the Augsburg clockmaker Konrad Kruetzer rather than by direct inheritance. As the son of an Augsburg clockmaker, he would have enjoyed advantages that were not otherwise granted to aspiring clockmakers.

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