Covered sugar bowl

William W. Gilbert

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the years following the American Revolution silversmiths favored such classical shapes as the covered urn and the inverted helmet, here represented by this sugar bowl and its matched creampot (23.80.20). Each of these objects is finely engraved below its beaded lip with bright­cut geometric borders and wrigglework and on its body with floral festoons and a bow­tied shield­shaped medallion engraved with an interlaced monogram. The bow­tied ribbons are particularly distinctive, their twists and turns carefully shaded and their ends precisely frayed. Although only the creampot is marked, the ornamental beading and identical bright­cut engraving confirm that they were intended as mates. The original owner of this sugar bowl is not known.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art