Traveling set in leather case

Johann Ludwig Laminit

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Often found in local inventories, the German terms Mundzeug and Besteck originally referred to a case or sheath for holding a personal set of cutlery. These sets contained essential utensils—a knife, fork, and spoon—and other implements, and they reflect the aristocratic ceremony of dining in the eighteenth century. A spice box with two containers, a marrow spoon, and a conventional knife, fork, and spoon (here with Meissen handles) were used during the entremets courses. The beaker and egg holder were not always included. The mark “14” points to a patron who provided silver of 14/16 loth purity (the normal was 13 or .8125 pure). Therefore the Augsburg town mark was not applied but only the maker’s mark and the purity of the silver alloy. References Silber auf Reisen. Exh. cat. Museum Schloss Fasanerie bei Fulda. Eichenzell bei Fulda, 1991. Hildegard Hoos in Messer, Gabel, Löffel. Museum für Kunsthandwerk. Frankfurt am Main, 1995, pp. 122-27, nos. 70-72. Helmut Seling. Die Augsburger Gold- und Silberschmiede, 1529–1868: Meister, Marken, Werke. New ed. Munich, 2007, p. 49, no. 1990, p. 486, no. 2027, pp. 541–542, no. 2183, p. 566, no. 2271. [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