Caddinet

Gottlieb Menzel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The caddinet was reserved for the sovereign and his immediate family. The instructions for setting the table for a banquet at Dresden Palace on September 3, 1719, read: “On the table is [to be placed] in front . . . of the king and the . . . queen the so-called caddinet, . . . in which are salt, pepper, and other [spices] in diverse compartments.” The tray held the private royal cutlery and a specially folded napkin that covered bread rolls; hence the object’s name BrodtTeller (bread tray) in contemporary inventories. Augustus the Strong (1670–1733) must have seen this rare expression of royal etiquette in use at the court in Versailles, where he visited in 1687. The pagoda-shaped lids recall the roof line of the king’s summer palace, Pillnitz, near Dresden, introducing a touch of the exotic chinoiserie so fashionable at the time. This caddinet was part of a set of six.

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