Watch
F. L. Meybom
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Almost nothing is known about the watchmaker who signed the movement of this watch, F. Meybom AParis/St. Germain, except that he made at least three of these unusual square-plated movements. The Paris watchmaker Auguste Bretonneau (recorded working 1638–58) and Balthazar Martinot (recorded working 1661–97), both better known than Meybom, also made them. All three provided movements for cases that are almost identical to this one, and one of these has been plausibly attributed to the Paris goldsmith Isaac Bergeron. The case is covered with panels of blued steel overlaid with openwork floral designs of gold. It has a hinged cover of rock crystal with beveled sides set within a silver and diamond bezel that permits an unobstructed view of the white enamel chapter ring with its black numerals for the hours and decorative marks at the quarters. The center of the dial is a circle of dark-blue basse-taille enamel, and the spandrels are painted with pink and blue floral ornament, completing the extraordinarily rich effect. Bergeron is recorded as a maker of watchcases in 1671, but as he was a Protestant, he was never allowed to become a master goldsmith in Paris. In 1686, he was probably the goldsmith on whose behalf King Louis XIV intervened by ordering that he be allowed to continue making watchcases. In 1694, he fled with his family to London.
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.