The Metropolitan Museum of Art

David Roentgen: Nemours Clock

Abraham and David Roentgen were renowned German cabinetmakers whose workshop was famed throughout Europe for its exquisite marquetry work and complex mechanical devices. Proportioned for a stately public room or library, this musical clock is likely to have been the first Roentgen object to reach the United States, belonging to Gouverneur Morris, one of the nation’s founding fathers. Not only does it tell time, but it also displays the interior works, which are hidden in most clocks.

This clock, from The Nemours Foundation, is featured in the exhibition Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens (on view October 30, 2012–January 27, 2013).

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Vase

Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present)

Factory director:: Böttger Period (1713–1720)
Date:: ca. 1713–20
Culture:: German (Meissen)
Medium:: Hard-paste porcelain
Dimensions:: Overall (confirmed): 5 7/16 x 4 11/16 x 4 11/16 in. (13.8 x 11.9 x 11.9 cm)
Classification:: Ceramics
Credit Line:: The George B. McClellan Collection, Gift of Mrs. George B. McClellan, 1941
Accession Number:: 42.205.26

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 551

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Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present)

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David Roentgen: Nemours Clock

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