Tripod stand

Matthew Boulton

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

]. Made at the factory of Matthew Boulton and John Fothergill, located outside Birmingham in what would become the industrial Midlands, this hot-water jug (see 1993.73) and tripod stand were acquired by the Museum more than twenty-four years apart, yet the base of the jug fits perfectly into the little ledge on the stand. Its date of manufacture, 1775–76, is a useful indication of how deeply the Neoclassic taste had become the public taste, for only ten years earlier it was a more esoteric style favored by a small aristocratic clientele.

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