Schnapps glass (one of twelve)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The form of this piece is unprecedented in the seventeenth century either in silver (the usual prototype for new glass forms) or in glass. It is close to the idea of cruet frames with central handle which were common in the eighteenth century. The signs of the zodiac are contained in swiftly sketched rococo cartouches, and there is a mixture of periods of costume worn by the various figures, including one in the garb of the sixteenth century and others from the seventeenth century. For all these reasons, it seems probable that the glass was decorated in the third quarter of the eighteenth century.

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