Chessmen (32)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The two kings resemble Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and Czar Alexander III of Russia, and resemblances to the Empress Augusta and Czarina Maria Feodorovna may be intended in the queens. The reigns of the Kaiser and Alexander III overlapped from 1887 to 1894. This period may thus be taken as the probable time in which the set was made. The initials J S in monogram within a shaped shield on the four rooks are probably those of the original owner.

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