Cup and saucer with butterflies

Chantilly

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The highly formal arrangement of stylized butterflies within a lobed form indicates that this motif (which appears on both dishes) is of Chinese origin, adapted by the Japanese to their own sense of design and color and their sense of European taste. The almost pure-white body of the Japanese example, called nigoshide, was developed for export and was used only for pieces with exclusively overglaze-enamel decoration. The lobed shape and the butterfly pattern were each copied individually at European factories, but Chantilly produced the only exact copy of the Asian import.

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