Pair of mounted vases

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These sky-blue vases of the Ch’ien Lung period were embellished in Paris with scrolled and foliated mounts that were used as bases, handles and rims and adapted them to the European Rococo aesthetic. The mounting of both Asian and European porcelain became a standard and lucrative practice for the Parisian marchands merciers. In this manner they could enhance a mediocre piece of porcelain or preserve a precious but damaged object. These “makers of nothing and sellers of everything” also invented new models for porcelain by giving them pierced mounts and turning them into incense burners or pot pourri holders.

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