Snuffbox

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The delicate engraving on this gold snuffbox, incorporating classical busts and trophies, suggests a patron of considerable stature. It was made for Sir Samuel Ongley, a merchant and investor who made a large fortune in the South Sea Company, and was knighted by Queen Anne in 1713. The popularity of snuff was at its height in the early decades of the eighteenth century, and a gold snuffbox was an incontestable sign of wealth.

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