Tobacco box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The box is oblong with shaped ends. A brass cartouche on the lid repeats the outline of the box. The cartouche shows a couple embracing each other outside a house, a second man is about to enter the house. The scene is framed by leaf scrolls and the inscription: Ik heb een oude man/die mijn nie kan behage (I have an old husband/who can't please me). The cartouche on the underside, which is also flanked by leaf scrolls, shows a man and a woman indoors next to a cradle. Inscribed: Maer thuis [?] vraegt 't werk/ dat ik niet heb te klage (But the work at home [?] is demanding/so I don't have to complain). The rims are lined, the edges molded, and the borders engraved with leaf scrolls and zigzag line decoration. Leaf scrolls are engraved on the side in front and on the ends. The back of the side has geometrical ornament.

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