Mantel clock (pendule à console)

Mantel clock (pendule à console)

Jean-Philippe Gosselin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ornamental bronzes—which are easily cast from molds and made to simulate solid gold or, occasionally, solid silver by the application of thin layers of precious metals—were ubiquitous in the décor and furnishings of an eighteenth-century French palace, townhouse, or château. This clock, signed by one of the most admired bronze founder-chasers, Jean-Joseph de Saint Germain, has lost all of its original gilding but preserves the undulating scrolls interspersed with floral motifs that are characteristic of French rococo design at its liveliest.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mantel clock (pendule à console)Mantel clock (pendule à console)Mantel clock (pendule à console)Mantel clock (pendule à console)Mantel clock (pendule à console)

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.