Cravat end

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The lavish use of expensive Venetian laces at the court of Louis XIV convinced his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to establish a competing French lace industry. The term point de France originally referred to both needle and bobbin lace made in France, but eventually became synonymous with French needle lace characterized by a hexagonal background mesh covered with buttonhole stitches and embellished with tiny projections known as picots. This cravat with a hunting theme was reputedly part of a set made in 1697 for the marriage of Marie-Adelaide of Savoy and Louis XIV’s grandson the duc de Bourgogne.

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