Tankard

Michael May II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This elegantly proportioned, gilded tankard is a late example of its type. The maker, who was a member of a well-known dynasty of goldsmiths, applied a harmonious decoration of late Baroque strapwork surrounding three bases imitating short lengths of decorative drapery, called lambrequins, each supporting an ancient bust. A cast pinecone finial surmounts the double-domed lid like a miniature monument. Literature Important Silver. Sale cat., Sotheby’s, New York, April 7, 1987, n.p., no. 40. Judit H. Kolba. Hungarian Silver: The Nicolas M. Salgo Collection. London, 1996, pp. 108–9, no. 86. References Elemér Kőszeghy. Magyarországi ötvösjegyek a középkortól 1867-ig / Merkzeichen der Goldschmiede Ungarns vom Mittelalter bis 1867. Budapest, 1936, nos. 130 [town mark], 264 [maker’s mark]. [Wolfram Koeppe 2015]

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