Food warmer with insert

Vienna

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vessel was probably intended to be used in the intimate living quarters of a house, which, in the eighteenth century would have been far removed from the kitchen. The porcelain insert once held a metal liner where the food was placed. The heat source may have been a small candle set inside the perforated base. The decoration includes beautifully painted naturalistic flowers, trelliswork, and four figures holding either tankards or crescent-shaped pastries.

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