Rosewater ewer

Johann Erhard Heiglen

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This ewer was undoubtedly made with a matching basin, now lost, and would have stood on a buffet in a dining room. Until forks became common after the seventeenth century, diners used ewers and basins to wash their hands. This ewer is an interpretation of a French style that evolved during the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715) under the influence of his court designer Jean Berain (1640–1711), but the three bands of strapwork may have been designed by Heuglin.

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