Desk (bonheur du jour)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The idea for this type, with a raised partition in the back, was conceived in Franec about 1750. Extensively used by lady letterwriters, it received the coquettish name bonheur-du-jour. The plain, elegant lines of this example are set off by exceptionally fine, characteristically English marquetry.

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