Wiktionary
n. 1 A work of art with some artistic merit. 2 An artwork exhibited for the purposes of decoration or the reflection of social status.
WordNet
n. a work of art of some artistic value; "this store sells only objets d'art"; "it is not known who created this piece" [syn: art object, piece]
Wikipedia
Objet d'art (plural objets d'art) means literally "art object", or work of art, in French, but in practice the term has long been reserved in English to describe works of art that are not paintings, large or medium-sized sculptures, prints or drawings. It therefore covers a wide range of works, usually small and three-dimensional, of high quality and finish in areas of the decorative arts, such as metalwork items, with or without enamel, small carvings, statuettes and plaquettes in any material, including engraved gems, hardstone carvings, ivory carvings including Japanese netsuke and similar items, non-utilitarian porcelain and glass, and a vast range of objects that would also be classed as antiques (or indeed antiquities), such as small clocks, watches, gold boxes, and sometimes textiles, especially tapestries. Books with fine bookbindings might be included. The term is somewhat flexible, and is often used as a broad term for "everything else" after major categories have been dealt with. Thus the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London describes its collection as follows: "The National Maritime Museum's collection of objet d’art 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 items illustrated on their website (all with maritime associations) include metal curtain ties, a "lacquered papier-maché tray", tapestries, small boxes for tobacco, snuff, cosmetics and other purposes, cut-paper pictures ( découpage), small silver items, miniature paintings, a "Gilt-brass clock finial", ceramic plaques, statuettes, cigarette boxes, plaquettes, a painted tray, a horse brass, a metal "pipe tamper", a small glass painting, a fan, a handle plate from furniture, and various other items. The term is used with the same meaning in French, but in that language it may sometimes be a synonym for "work of art", and has retained more respectability in the worlds of art history and museums than in English, where in recent decades it is often avoided (even more in archaeology), but remains in use in the world of collecting and the art and antique markets. In English it may be italicised as a foreign word, or not; either may be considered correct. Incorrect forms such as "objet-d'art", "object(s) d'art" are sometimes seen, and the term should not be capitalized in running prose.
Usage examples of "objet d'art".
His lean frame was flattered by a finely tailored suit of Hong Kong silk, his shoes were obviously bench made, his tie an objet d'art of vivid and wondrous resplendence.
The energy that was released was measured, compared to a time scale and a date was assigned to the clay used in creating the objet d'art.
Oil's fine was what the man said before he went around the corner, those were his last words on the matter, and here it still was, like an objet d'art somehow left behind in a closed-down gallery.
A small chromium button glittered at one end of this dubious objet d'art.
Travers is a collector, and collectors are never pleased when they learn that a rival collector has acquired at an insignificant price an objet d'art of great value.
Over the Supreme de Foie Gras au Champagne and the Neige aux Perles des Alpes I placed him in possession of the facts relating to the black amber statuette thing, and his relief at learning that Pop Bassett hadn't got a thousand-quid objet d'art for a fiver was so profound and the things he said about Pop B.
The extremely spare decor reinforced the impression created by the place's very dimensions: bare space from carpet to ceiling, broken approximately every forty meters by some exquisitely simple objet d'art of at least a megabuck's value, appropriately displayed.
Keff asked, throwing a friendly arm over the man's shoulder before he could start a lecture on the next objet d'art.
Checking every painting, every sculpture, every pedestal and objet d'art.
Dug out of the Martian bedrock it had grown from over the previous several thousand years and plinthed as a rich man's objet d'art.
And Timur, who moved in the same circle and who received commissions from these same wives and daughters--for rather a different kind of objet d'art--often used to run into him.