Plate with Lily of the Valley Tree (Clethra arborea)

Royal Porcelain Manufactory (Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur), Berlin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A fashion for botany swept Europe at the end of the eighteenth century, when botanical designs were used to decorate porcelain services. This plate design is closely related to the service that the Berlin royal porcelain manufactory (Koenigliche Porzellan Manufaktur) created for Josephine Bonaparte beginning in 1809. Like all true botanical services, this plate, which features a lily of the valley, identifies the scientific nomenclature of the plant, “Clethra arborea,” on the reverse side.

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