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
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Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Animation
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Cup and saucer

Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present)

Date:: ca. 1735
Culture:: German (Meissen)
Medium:: Hard-paste porcelain
Dimensions:: Cup (.393): H. 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm.) Saucer (.394): Diam. 5 1/8 in. (13.0 cm.)
Classification:: Ceramics
Credit Line:: The Lesley and Emma Sheafer Collection, Bequest of Emma A. Sheafer, 1973
Accession Number:: 1974.356.393, .394

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 533

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Cup and saucer

Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present)

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David Roentgen: Nemours Clock

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Cup and saucer

Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present)

Met Media

Met Kids

Met Store