Embroidered band sampler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Band samplers are composed of horizontal rows ("bands") of embroidered patterns stitched along the woven linen foundation fabric. The shape of this band sampler is unusual, as it is square rather than rectangular, long to ensure that many bands can be stitched. Many of the patterns stitched onto band samplers can be traced to sixteenth-century pattern books, and often include depictions of fruit, flowers, and geometric patterns. This undated and unsigned sampler consists of three bands, the last of which includes "boxers," male figures who flank a floral motif and hold a "trophy," in this case a bird. The figure of the boxer is probably derived from the motif of a lover offering a flower to his beloved, which is also found in a number of sixteenth-century pattern books.

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