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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Piece

Christopher Dresser (British, Glasgow, Scotland 1834–1904 Mulhouse)

Manufactory:: James W. and C. Ward Textile
Date:: ca. 1873
Culture:: British, Halifax
Medium:: Wool and silk
Dimensions:: L. 24 3/4 x W. 23 1/4 inches (62.9 x 59.1 cm)
Classification:: Textiles
Credit Line:: Purchase, Friends of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Gifts, 1995
Accession Number:: 1995.252

This artwork is not on display

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David Roentgen: Nemours Clock

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Christopher Dresser (British, Glasgow, Scotland 1834–1904 Mulhouse)

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David Roentgen: Nemours Clock

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Piece

Christopher Dresser (British, Glasgow, Scotland 1834–1904 Mulhouse)

Met Media

Met Kids

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