Tea chest

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The English satirist Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) wrote in his Directions to Servants (1729) about "small chests and trunks with lock and key, wherein they keep the tea and sugar." Executed in a late Rococo style, this example, with its serpentine sides, scroll feet, and crisp carving on front and sides, displays some similarities to designs in the first and third editions of Thomas Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director (1754, 1762).

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