Bookcase

Martin Carlin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carlin worked primarily for marchand-merciers, the decorator-dealers who guided Parisian fashion, and he knew well how to finesse elegance. Given the task of constructing a bookcase of sizable mass, he created an effect of airy lightness by the use of delicate marquetry, glittering gilt-bronze and, above all, skillful design.

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