Ein neues Buch von allerhand Gold-Arbeit, auff unterschiedliche Art und Manier sehr wol u. nüzlich zu gebrauchen

Joseph Friedrich Leopold

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This page from a book of jewelry designs after the relatively unknown German goldsmith David Baumann is teeming with ideas for brooches, pins, pendants, and ornaments that could be engraved in silver or gold. The designs indicate that certain pieces carry specific meanings attesting to religious convictions, friendship, and love. Others exude a sense of pure opulence and sometimes whimsy, such as the flying snail and insects made from diamonds.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art