Vase

Meissen Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vase was one of the first pieces produced at Meissen after alchemists Johann Frederick Böttger and Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus succeeded in developing a European alternative to Chinese porcelain. European aristocracy had long supported attempts to make porcelain domestically. By the eighteenth century, Carl Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, had asserted that maintaining a porcelain factory was "a necessary attribute of the glory and dignity of a prince."

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