Coffeepot

Alois Simpert Eschenlohr

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Early in the nineteenth century it became the custom to produce pots for coffee and hot milk en suite, and this piece was acquired together with its matching, smaller milk pot (1996.436.2a, b). Eschenlohr, who became a master silversmith in 1824, has taken a simple Neoclassical form and enlivened it with a playful contrast of surface effects, decorative details, and materials. A cherub's head emerges from a cluster of grapes beneath the spout, the cover is topped by a trio of ivory acorns, and the dark smoothness of the handle complements the light-catching fluting of the body. Few works are known by Eschenlohr, who shows himself here to be a masterful and witty designer.

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