Standing cup with cover and stand

Meissen Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Commissioned by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, to commemorate the state visit to Dresden in January 1728 of the king and queen of Prussia, parents of Frederick the Great. The queen’s initials, SD for Sophie-Dorothea, are three times displayed. The larger finial figure of Athena is closely related to a silver statuette in the Electoral collections at Dresden, made by Philipp Kuesel of Augsburg before 1700. The turquoise ground has reserves with gold-lace borders painted by Heroldt with colorful chinoiserie figures in idyllic landscapes. This splendid cup illustrates that interesting phase of early Meissen production when the compelling influence of all things Chinese had been superseded by a temporary dependence on silver shapes; the lure of the Orient continued in the painted decoration.

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