Watch stand

Tournai

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

When not being worn on an individual, a pocket watch could be placed on a stand, transforming it from a personal item into a household one, like a mantel clock. Watch stands were produced at porcelain and pottery factories throughout Europe and were also made in other materials, such as gilded bronze and wood. First appearing in the seventeenth century, they gained popularity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when watch ownership became more common.

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