Waste bowl (part of a service)

Lowestoft

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The term "chinoiserie" refers to an 18th-century European style inspired by the art of China, Japan, and other Asian countries. In Britain, porcelain imported from China and Japan was extremely fashioinable and highly coveted. This caused British factories to imitate Asian wares, both by copying Asian originals, but more often by creating their own imaginative "chinoiserie" designs. The chinoiserie style was at its height in Britain in the 1750s and 1760s. It is related to the rococo style, which was also characterized by asymmetry and an element of fantasy. In British porcelain, it is not uncommon to find objects that combine both aspects of chinoiserie and rococo.

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