Pair of vases

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The blue-green celadon vases have the Chinese character shou meaning “long life” in low relief on their body. Originally even taller, these vases have been cut down and were mounted in Paris with scrolled and pierced handles, lip, and base. These mounts have been compared to work by Jean-Claude Duplessis père (ca. 1695-1774) a talented goldsmith, gilt-bronze worker, and porcelain designer. Duplessis’s name occurs regularly in the Livre-Journal or account book of the dealer Lazare Duvaux’s for the ten-year period of 1748-1758. In September of 1750, for instance, he sold the Marquis de Voyer d’Argenson a pair of large celadon porcelain vases mounted by Duplessis in gilt bronze for 3000 livres. This exceptionally high price indicates that the vases must have been of great importance, just like the Museum’s pair.

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