Ewer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Economics played a part in ensuring the relative simplicity of this silver-plated brass ewer. Although intended for a sideboard display near a dining table, or for hand washing before and during a meal, it was relatively inexpensive. On the edges, the silver has worn thin, revealing the base metal below. When it was new, it would have been indistinguishable from a pure silver ewer, perhaps made to replace a lost one. The wartime expenses of King Louis XIV were vast, draining the national coffers. In 1689, 1699, and again in 1709, French nobles were required to hand over their household silver to be melted down. Many replaced these lost pieces with plated wares, like this example, or, more commonly, with elaborately painted pottery examples. This simple graceful ewer is of the helmet type that evolved at Louis XIV’s court. The form, based on an inverted classical helmet, became a popular model and was executed not only in silver but also in faience. (See 48.187.19, 17.190.1764, 58.60.14).

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