View source for Objet d'art

{{Short description|Small, nonfunctional work of art}}
[[File:House of Fabergé - Gatchina Palace Egg - Walters 44500 - Open View B.jpg|thumb|''Objet d’art'': The [[Gatchina Palace (Fabergé egg)|Gatchina 
Palace Egg]] contains a miniature of the [[Gatchina Palace]] of [[Catherine the Great]].]]

In [[art history]], the French term '''objet d'art''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ɒ|b|ʒ|eɪ|_|ˈ|d|ɑːr|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-objet d'art.wav}}; {{IPA|fr|ɔbʒɛ daʁ}}) describes an ornamental [[work of art]], and the term '''objets d’art''' describes a range of works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, made of high-quality materials, and a finely-rendered finish that emphasises the aesthetics of the artefact.<ref>''The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' (1993) Lesley Brown, Ed. p. 1,965.</ref> Artists create and produce ''objets d’art'' in the fields of the [[decorative arts]] and [[metalwork]], [[porcelain]] and [[vitreous enamel]]; [[figurine]]s, [[plaquette]]s, and [[engraved gem]]s; [[ivory carving]]s and semi-precious [[hardstone carving]]s; [[tapestry|tapestries]], [[antiques]], and [[antiquities]]; and books with fine [[bookbinding]].

The [[National Maritime Museum]], [[Greenwich]], London, describes their accumulated artworks as a: "collection of ''objets d’art'' [which] comprises over 800 objects. These are mostly small, decorative art items that fall outside the scope of the Museum’s ceramic, plate, textiles and glass collections." The artwork collection also includes metal curtain ties, a lacquered ''papier-maché'' tray, tobacco boxes, [[cigarette case]]s, ''[[découpage]]'' (cut-paper items), [[portrait miniature]]s, a gilt-brass clock finial, plaques, statuettes, plaquettes, a [[horse brass]], a metal pipe tamper, a small [[glass painting]], et cetera.<ref>[http://prints.rmg.co.uk/category/8970/decorative-art/objets-dart objets d'art] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904163841/http://prints.rmg.co.uk/category/8970/decorative-art/objets-dart |date=2012-09-04 }}, National Maritime Museum</ref>

==Objet de vertu==
[[File:WLA vanda Netsuke 4.jpg|thumb|''Objet d’art'': A ''[[netsuke]]'' ivory carving from Japan, {{circa|18th or 19th century}}, coloured with black ink]]
The ''objet de vertu'', wherein ''vertu'' suggests rich materials and a higher standard of refined manufacture and finish; the classification usually excludes objects made for realising a practical function. As works of art, ''objets de vertu'' reflect the rarified aesthetic and [[conspicuous consumption]] characteristic of an aristocratic court—of the late-medieval [[House of Valois-Burgundy|Burgundian dukes]], the [[Mughal emperors]], or Ming China—such as the [[Lycurgus Cup]], which is a [[cage cup]] made of [[Roman glass]]; the Byzantine agate "Rubens vase"; the Roman glass "[[Portland Vase]]", and onyx and chalcedony [[Cameo (carving)|cameo carvings]], whilst the pre–World War I production of ''objets d'art'' featured [[Fabergé egg]]s made of [[precious metal]]s and decorated with [[gemstone]]s.

A comparable term that appears in 18th- and 19th-century French sale catalogs,<ref>Such as the ''Catalogue raisonné des différens objets de curiosité dans les sciences et arts, qui composoient le cabinet de feu Mr..'' Paris, 1775; in 1916 A. Tuete edited the ''Inventaire des laques anciennes et des objets de curiosité de [[Marie Antoinette|Marie-Antoinette]]: confiés à [[Dominique Daguerre|Daguerre]] et Lignereux, marchands bijoutiers, le 10 octobre 1789''.</ref> though now less used, is '''''objets de curiosité''''', "objects of curiosity",<ref>Maurice Rheims' ''La vie étrange des objets'' (1959) is subtitled ''histoire de la curiosité''.</ref> now devolved into the less-valued ''curio''.  Elaborate late Renaissance display pieces in silver that incorporate organic elements such as [[ostrich eggs]], nuts of the [[coco de mer]] and sea-shells are grouped in a volume, published in 1991, as "The Curiousities" in the catalogues of the [[Waddesdon Bequest]] at the [[British Museum]].<ref>Tait, Hugh, ''A Catalogue of the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum'', several volumes, British Museum. Volumes: I, ''The Jewels'', 1986; II ''The Silver Plate'', 1988; III ''The Curiosities'', 1991.</ref>

==Images==
<gallery widths="165px" heights="130px">
File:Memory of Azov Egg.jpg|An ''objet de vertu'' by excellence, [[House of Fabergé|Fabergé's]] "[[Memory of Azov Egg]]" (1891), contains a ship model wrought of gold.
File:Byzantine - The "Rubens Vase" - Walters 42562.jpg|The [[Rubens Vase]], carved in high relief from a single piece of [[agate]], 4th century
File:Salt Cellar.jpg|In [[Benvenuto Cellini]]'s "[[Cellini Salt Cellar|table salt cellar]]", extravagant invention and richness of materials overwhelm any practical use.
File:Singing bird box by Charles Bruguier.jpg|A Swiss [[singing bird box]] with a bucolic lake scene on the lid, {{circa|1825}}, another example of an ''objet de vertu''

</gallery>

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|objet d'art}}
*[[Treasury]]
*[[Cabinet of curiosities]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Decorative arts]]