Beaker

Vienna

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The large number of beakers without handles or with one or two handles made by Du Paquier were likely used for chocolate and coffee. Records show that they were purchased by members of the nobility as well as by coffeehouse owners and Turkish merchants. This beautifully decorated beaker bears the coats of arms of Count Johann Anton Ernst von Gurland, imperial councilor and high commissioner of the Provincial Estates, and his wife. It must have been made before the count’s death in 1728.

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