Automaton clock in the form of an eagle

Automaton clock in the form of an eagle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

European clocks were often, and from the outset, associated with the creation of automata—moving, mechanized figures or contrivances. Seventeenth-century Augsburg clockmakers specialized in small domestic examples. Here, when the clock strikes the hour, the scepter moves, and on the quarter hours the eagle opens and shuts its beak and rolls its eyes. The eagle emblem of the Habsburgs had special meaning for inhabitants of Augsburg, a free city with a direct allegiance to the Habsburg Holy Roman emperors.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Automaton clock in the form of an eagleAutomaton clock in the form of an eagleAutomaton clock in the form of an eagleAutomaton clock in the form of an eagleAutomaton clock in the form of an eagle

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.