Ensemble for chocolate

Vienna

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The high status accorded chocolate drinking in the eighteenth century is reflected in this extraordinary object, which combines three materials considered precious at the time. The painted decoration of the tray and beaker indicates that they were intended to be fitted with metal mounts; for example, areas left undecorated on the porcelain are covered by the gold mounts. The mounts provide stabilizing trembleuse stands for two beakers. The second beaker, of glass, would have held water. The gold scallop shell between the two beakers would have supported a gold spoon.

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