c. 1760

Design for a Mass Card Stand

There are few designs for decorative-arts objects in the Museum's Italian drawings collection. This sheet, a design for a Mass card holder for a church altar, is from the workshop of the most important Roman gold- and silversmith of the eighteenth century. Valadier's shop produced a variety of objects for noble and princely patrons, both secular and ecclesiastical, from monumental commissions such as altarpieces to small-scale domestic items such as inkstands, salvers, tableware, and candlesticks.