Plate (one of two)

Gottlieb Menzel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These plates are part of the addition to the Double-Gilded Service of about 1718. The number 224 incised on the reverse indicates the extent of this first grand German parade service, made for Albert’s grandfather Augustus II the Strong (1670–1733), king of Poland (1697–1704, 1709–33) and elector of Saxony (1694–1733; hence the engraved arms). The king is best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture, commissioning the Zwinger Palace and the fabled Green Vault filled with jeweled treasures as well as separate chambers displaying silver and gilded-silver parade buffets. Augustus commissioned the so-called Double-Gilded (intended to imitate gold) Service from Augsburg, a center of European goldsmithing, on the occasion of the four-week-long festivities surrounding the wedding of Albert’s parents in August 1719.

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