Embroidered sampler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Samplers from Friesland, in the northwest of the Netherlands, are characterized chiefly by alphabets and tree of life motifs. The sampler also features pierced and crowned hearts, checkerboards, and brides and grooms- motifs typical of samplers from other regions of the Netherlands as well. The letters VM are most likely the initials of the sampler’s maker. The dates 1667, 1692, 1697, and 1698 usually below images of trees and brides and grooms, perhaps to commemorate the births or marriages of family members.

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