
Wine glass cooler (seau à verre)
Vincennes Manufactory
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This deep blue ground color was known at Vincennes as bleu lapis or lapis blue, named after the mineral lapis lazuli, long prized for the intensity of its color. Most ground colors were applied over the glaze once it had been fired; in contrast, blue lapis was applied and fired before the piece was glazed.
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.