Pair-case watch

Daniel Delander

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This watch incorporates an early eighteenth-century development in watchmaking: the use of jewel endstones—hard gemstones with holes drilled into them for pivoting the ends of the shafts to which the wheels are attached. This innovation was not only practical, helping to strengthen a part of the watch susceptible to wear and damage, but also beautiful. The large pink diamond endstone of the present example is visible at the center of Delander’s beautifully pierced and engraved balance cock.

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