Chessmen (32) and box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This set was the prize at a chess tournament between the cities of Aachen and Leipzig in 1887. The glass-topped box has a paper label reading: "Zur Erinnerung an die 3 Schachparthien zwischen Aachen & Leipzig vom 16/11 84 - 9/8 85" [In memory of three chess matches between Aachen and Leipzig from November 16, 1884, to August 9, 1885]. The winner of the matches was Leipzig. Germany produced a number of these elegantly made chess sets, usually of wood, but occasionally of ivory. Even more fragile chessmen were made in Denmark. A set in the Danish Museum of Industrial Art has "crow's nests" of lacy forms and twisting stems of triple "threads." A peculiarity with the knight is the development of two addorsed horse heads, a form that goes back to the early seventeenth century. In some sets there is nothing to indicate that the piece is associated with a horse, and it is distinguished by an incomplete ruff, or a cut aslant. This design occurs as early as the 17th 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