Fruit dish (one of a pair)

Thomas Heming

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The serene symmetry and light, elegant decoration of these boat-shaped fruit bowls, representative of goldsmith Thomas Heming's best work for the crown, make a striking contrast to the Rococo style popular at the time. The arms engraved in the cartouches placed at the center of each side are those of James, second earl of Fife, and his wife, Lady Dorothea Sinclair. They were married in the year the bowls were made, and thus were probably a wedding gift.

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