Bottle vase

Ernest Chaplet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This bottle vase is decorated with a flambé glaze, a mixture of deep copper red and turquoise blue. The technique, known in China for centuries, was emulated in the nineteenth century by French art potters led by Chaplet. It involved the oxidation of copper in the kiln (reduced oxygen to create red; increased oxygen for blue). One critic wrote, "M. Chaplet, who, after thirty years of special study, also seems to have gained absolute control over his capricious materials, so that, apparently at will, he can, on a single piece, obtain the most unexpected and diverse effects of color."

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