Pouring vessel (Kendi)

Meissen Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Used principally in Southeast Asia for drinking and pouring, the kendi is loosely based on an earlier Indian form. This German example is decorated with dragons and clouds on the neck, flowering narcissus on the body, and the heads of the lingzhi fungus at the foot and rim, motifs that derive from China, where kendi-type vessels were often made for export. This type of red stoneware body is known as Böttger stoneware, named after the man who developed it at the Meissen factory.

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