Basin (Réchaud)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The shape suggests a chafing dish (réchaud in French). Food was kept warm in a separate receptacle placed atop the basin, which would have been filled with water heated by a brazier stored in the pedestal. However, the fragility of the Museum’s basin indicates that it served a purely decorative purpose. The purple and green pillars and the large-scale floral motifs on a brown ground are unique to this piece.

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