Ewer

Faience Manufacturing Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A long-necked ewer with a pinched spout displays the synthesis of Near and Far Eastern shape and decoration characteristic of the Faience Manufacturing Company's vessels. The decoration of bird and butterfly amid raspberry branches is simultaneously indebted to Japanese motifs as well as those of the much-admired English artists at the Worcester Royal Porcelain Company. By leaving some of the raspberry leaves ungilded, the decorator created a subtle illusion of depth on the surface. The ungilded leaves seem to recede into the background.

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