Five miniature cups

David Clayton

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The production of miniature silver furniture and tea, coffee, and chocolate equipment was a specialty of goldsmiths known as "toy men." The miniatures were probably intended for dollhouses. From the mid-eighteenth century in England until the present, porcelain and fine earthenware miniatures have been made as well.

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