Ewer

Samuel Margas Jr.

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This massive ewer and dish was made in London for shipment to St. Petersburg. It was part of a large order placed by Empress Catherine I, who ambitiously sought to bring fashionable western-style furnishings to her court. The ewer and dish would have been displayed on a tiered buffet for banquets and court dinners. London's silversmiths in the eighteenth century attracted international buyers, and a small subset of them seem to have had good connections in prosperous centers like Lisbon and St. Petersburg. This set is much larger and heavier than a typical ewer and dish made for an English client, and it may be that Samuel Margas was working to his patron's specifications. He marked only the ewer with his own punch, and, presumably to save the cost of duty, did not have the pieces assayed. The applied arms with the double-headed eagle were added in Russia.

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