Twelve-light candelabrum

Matthew Boulton

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Matthew Boulton, one of the fathers of the industrial revolution, established a manufactory in Birmingham to produce silver, ormolu, plate, coins, medals. He also entered into partnership with James Watt to produce the first commercial steam engines. This massive candelabra is based on a Roman triumphal column in Alexandria known as the column of Pompey. It bears the arms of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who became the colonel of the 15th Light Dragoons in 1802, which probably commissioned this candelabra as a 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