Mechanical casket

Heinrich Gambs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The design of this rectangular casket, with its double stepped base, appears to belong to the Art Deco period rather than to the time of Napoleon. The beautiful burr maple–veneered exterior encloses various mechanical devices, buttons, and springs to open or release hidden compartments and give access to secret drawers. Heinrich Gambs served as a journeyman in the workshop of David Roentgen with whom he collaborated and traveled to Russia in 1790. Gambs opened a furniture workshop in Saint Petersburg, where he made mechanical pieces that resembled the work of his well-known teacher, attracting among his select clientele the future empress Maria Feodorovna.

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