Coffeepot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Coffee was first brought to Europe from Arabia. The Viennese claim that they looted sacks of coffee beans after the Ottomans withdrew following a failed siege in 1683. It was an Armenian merchant, possibly born in Istanbul, who founded Austria’s first coffeehouse in 1685. Precious silverware was the perfect medium to serve this exotic beverage to fashionable and affluent patrons. The maker’s knowledge of contemporary Italianate Baroque architecture is clearly visible in the coffeepot’s shape: the body rests like a palace tower on an oval stand. The bold curved spout is closed with a hinged cover to keep the contents warm.

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