Fruit or flower basket (corbeille aux cygnes)

Fruit or flower basket (corbeille aux cygnes)

Sèvres Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Berthault, Malmaison’s garden architect and decorator of the greenhouse, designed this jardinière for Josephine in 1812 as a table centerpiece. To further enhance her dinner table, a richly gilded dessert service ornamented with botanical motifs was ordered from the Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin during the city’s occupation by the French.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fruit or flower basket (corbeille aux cygnes)Fruit or flower basket (corbeille aux cygnes)Fruit or flower basket (corbeille aux cygnes)Fruit or flower basket (corbeille aux cygnes)Fruit or flower basket (corbeille aux cygnes)

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.