Booklet of embroidery and drawnwork

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

At some point fairly early in its history, the many small pieces of fabric included in this booklet were seamed together and loosely bound, to create a kind of glossary of colored and monochrome openwork patterns. Scraps of silk, glove leather and writing paper with Portuguese text were employed to stabilize the pages. The recycling of materials and the compact nature of the booklet all suggest that this was a purely practical reference work for a professional seamstress, and was not meant for display. Some of the patterns are worked in double running stitch, also referred to as "Spanish stitch," reflecting its possible origin on the Iberian peninsula in the sixteenth century.

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