Nautilus shell box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fashion for nautilus cups as table decorations originated in the Low Countries, and impresses us as a typical choice for a seafaring nation. Most of the shells came from distant oceans, and their silver or silver-gilt mounts retained the flavor of the sea by featuring marine motifs. From the Low Countries the fashion for these cups spread to Germany and to England. In England they remained rare, however, and so far as we know this is the only English nautilus cup of the period.

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