Pair of candlesticks

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The relatively small size of this pair of candlesticks may be an indication that they were part of a toilet set or would have been used in private domestic quarters. Supported on a round foot, the shaft and candle holder are decorated with incised lines. The simple clear design is typical of late 17th century French silver. In the era before gas lighting and electricity, candles played a principal role in illuminating the domestic interior. Beeswax candles burned clean, had a pleasant smell, but were quite expensive compared to those made of tallow. Daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, Catherine D. Wentworth (1865–1948) was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years. She became one of the most important American collectors of eighteenth-century French silver and on her death in 1948 bequeathed part of her significant collection of silver, gold boxes, French furniture, and textiles to the Metropolitan Museum. The collection is particularly strong in domestic silver, much of it provincial such as these candlesticks made in Montpellier, and includes a number of rare early pieces.

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