Box

Johann Christian Sick

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These silver boxes, part of larger silver, presumably were used to keep sweets and other delicacies, as the handy form and tightly closing lids suggest. The ciphers below closed crowns belong to Charlotte Augusta Mathilde, queen of Wurttemberg (1766-1828). The form mirrors the Neoclassical principles of German silver design towards a formal reduction of the shape and geometry. The daring juxtaposition of plain polished areas with matted ornamental applications has an astonishingly modern aesthetic.

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