Toilet casket

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Known in French as a carré de toilette, this casket has canted corners and is richly decorated with boulle marquetry of tortoiseshell and brass (première partie). Named for André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732), cabinetmaker to Louis XIV, who excelled in this technique, the marquetry features strap- and scrollwork interspersed with animals, birds, and a few human figures reminiscent of designs by Jean Bérain (1640–1711). Similar caskets are depicted in Jean-Marc Nattier’s portrait Madame Marsollier and Her Daughter (1749).

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