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David Roentgen: Nemours Clock

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David Roentgen: Nemours Clock

Program information

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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Robert Joseph Auguste  (French, 1723–1805, master 1757)

Date:
1765–66
Culture:
French (Paris)
Medium:
Gold
Dimensions:
1-1/2 x 2-3/4 x 2-1/8 in. (3.8 x 7.0 x 5.4 cm)
Classification:
Metalwork
Credit Line:
Gift of Handy and Harman, 1965
Accession Number:
65.255

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 530

  • Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

    Signature: [1] Auguste F. à Paris (engraved along front rim of box) [2] 51 (scratched next to inscription)

    Marking: [1] crowned fleur-de-lis, two grains de remède, RJA, device a palm branch (maker's mark) [2] crossed laurel branches (Paris charge mark for gold and small silver work, 1762-68) [3] crowned C (Paris warden's mark, 1766-67) [4] hound's head (Paris discharge mark for gold and small silver work, 1762-68) [5] hunting horn (Paris countermark, 1768-74) [6] man's slipper (Paris countermark, 1774-80) [7] clasped hands (General countermark, 1780-82) [8] dolphin's head (Paris countermark 1782-89) [9] ET in rectangle (French mark for gold and silver imported from countries without Customs Conventions [1864-1893]) Location of marks: [1]-[3]: inside cover, inside bottom, on insetting rim of box [4]-[9]: on insetting rim of box, [9] struck twice

  • Provenance

    Monsieur de Lafaulotte (until 1886; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 5–13, 1886, lot 415); Handy and Harman (through Mr. M.W. Townsend, President; until 1965; to MMA)

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    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
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