How to Read European Decorative Arts

Illuminating three centuries of European artistry and ingenuity, this volume in The Met’s acclaimed How to Read series provides a wide-ranging exploration of decorative arts from British writing tables to Russian snuffboxes.

Featuring 40 objects from ceramic teapots to gold chalices, this latest addition to The Met’s How to Read series guides readers through a wide variety of decorative arts dating from the Renaissance to the start of the Industrial Revolution. The publication includes works by renowned masters like Jan van Mekeren and Andrea Boucheron, but also those by talented amateurs, such as the anonymous young woman who embroidered a casket with scenes from the Story of Esther.

The geographic sources of the decorative arts represented span the Continent, from England, Spain, and France to Germany, Denmark, and Russia. In choosing the featured pieces, which range from furniture to tableware and from items of personal adornment to devotional objects, the author has sought out intriguing but less familiar examples, some previously unpublished.

Discussing not only the art-historical relevance of the works but also pertinent social issues, including the role of women artists and the influence of colonial slavery, this is an indispensable resource on three hundred years of European decorative arts.