Milk jug (part of a service)

Marc Jacquart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This tea and coffee service (38.12.1–.5) is distinguished both by the enormous scale of its pieces and the high quality of the cast and applied decoration. While its sugar bowl is missing, the service is an unusually grand survivor of silver from the Napoleonic period. The mother-of-pearl handles add to the impression of luxury but also serve a functional purpose, as they do not conduct the heat generated by the hot liquids that the vessels contained.

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