Table clock

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The underside of the case bears the punchmark ND, in this period probably the mark of the clockmaker, not the casemaker. The engraved band on the side of the case reproduces a 1549 print by Hans Sebald Beham (1500–1550) titled Triumphal Procession of the Noble Glorious Women, which was also used as a model for the reliefs on the base of the clock. The clock is signed by Caspar Behaim. Although it is often possible to trace the sources of their designs, very little is known about sixteenth-century clock casemakers. The watch movement was probably installed relatively recently, perhaps when the present hand was made.

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