Watch

David Lestourgeon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pendulum watches attest to the success of the pendulum clock, although in reality these watches employ the standard balance for controlling the escapement. The movement is inverted in its case so that the balance is directly under the dial, and a bob attached to the balance shows through the crescent-shaped slot in the dial, where its oscillations resemble those of a true pendulum. Lestourgeon, a master clockmaker in Rouen in 1660, moved to London in 1681, no doubt as the result of the increasing intolerance of Protestants in France. He became a member of the London Clockmakers’ Company in 1698.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art