Chessmen (32)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As often occurs in sets of this elaborate type, which were never made for play, there is no difference between the kings and the generals of the two sides. Only the pawns are clearly differentiated, the Indians holding long spears and girt with swords, the Europeans with muskets with fixed bayonets. Unlike Bengali sets of this period, the rooks are not boats but are castles with a flag-carrying infantryman on the top. The elephant's (bishop's) place is filled by a camel-a common feature in late Indian chess sets. The facial types suggest French soldiers.

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