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).

David Roentgen: Long-Case Clock
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The Roentgens' Berlin Secretary Cabinet
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Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Demonstration
(00:02:17) 16720 views

Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Animation
(00:01:00) 3016 views

Pharmacy jug

Date:: 16th century
Culture:: Italian (Caffagiolo) or Siena
Medium:: Maiolica (tin-enameled earthenware)
Dimensions:: Overall (confirmed): 8 9/16 x 6 x 4 11/16 in. (21.7 x 15.2 x 11.9 cm)
Classification:: Ceramics
Credit Line:: Fletcher Fund, 1946
Accession Number:: 46.85.44

This artwork is not on display

Provenance

Sigismond Bardac (by 1913) ; Mortimer L. Schiff (before 1927–46; sale, Mortimer L. Schiff collection, Parke- Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, May 4, 1946, part of lot no. 16)
See also
What
Ceramics (29,320)

Vessels (21,921)

Pottery (12,856)

Earthenware (6,696)

Jugs (1,683)

Maiolica (565)

Apothecary jars (136)
Where
Europe (148,586)

Italy (20,983)

Tuscany (1,162)

Siena (547)
When
A.D. 1400-1600 (20,545)
In the Museum
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts (43,257)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Florence and Central Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.