Embroidered sampler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This long and narrow sampler is divided up into five square sections, two small and three large, on top of which is an alphabet. Four of the squares consist of floral motifs along the borders and facing the middle, while the fifth features banded geometric patterns. The letters SM and the year 1651 are stitched onto the linen, most likely the initials of the maker and the year in which she completed her work. Flanking these initials are a ship’s wheel and an unidentified animal.

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