Tea caddy (part of a set)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Containing two canisters for tea (green and black) and a larger one for sugar, this chest could be locked to secure its valuable contents; both tea and sugar were expensive commodities during the eighteenth century. The polychrome pastoral scenes and Italianate landscapes, combined with Rococo-style gilding against a pink ground, create an opulent effect.

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