Snuffbox

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This enameled and engraved gold snuffbox dates to the mid-eighteenth century. The wavy stripes have been created from an alternating pattern of black and red enamel engraved with floral motifs and the pattern is reminiscent of the floral designs found in silk cloth of the period. The black and red enamel also evokes the translucent effects of Chinese and Japanese lacquer, a material that was highly prized as an exotic luxury good among the eighteenth-century European elite.

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