Box

François-Nicolas Chevance

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beginning in the 1750s French goldsmiths introduced subtle colors into their gold boxes by using various types of gold. This box as well as the one for rouge and patches on display nearby has applied ornament in greenish and reddish gold, achieved by the addition of metal oxides to the alloy. This bonbonnière, used for sweets, is decorated with incised and applied dots that play on the shape of the circular box. The finely incised lines were created by turning the box against a cutting edge while it was mounted on a lathe.

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