Set of seven pruning tools

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Decorated with engraved natural motifs, including fruit and fish, precious tools such as these were meant for noble patrons for whom gardening had gradually become a suitable pastime. The set, comprising clippers, a saw, four knives, and a combination hammer-rasp-file-and-auger, would have been used for trimming branches and obtaining bud grafts.

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