Joaillerie: Album of Jewelry Designs, Page 8
1770 or after
Medium
Brown ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 1/4 in. × 8 in. (13.3 × 20.3 cm)
Classification
Albums|Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932
Accession Number
32.129(9)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate page from the *Joaillerie: Album of Jewelry* captures the elegance of French jewelry drafting in the late 18th century, anonymously with contributions attributed to L. van deruycen around 1770 or later. Rendered in brown ink on a modest 5¼ × 8-inch sheet, it exemplifies the meticulous preparatory sketches used by jewelers and artisans during the waning years of the Ancien Régime. Such albums served as pattern books, guiding the fabrication of luxurious pieces for the aristocracy amid the opulent styles bridging Rococo exuberance and emerging Neoclassicism. The artwork's historic...