Mantel clock with musical movement

Mantel clock with musical movement

Jean-Baptiste-André Furet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This bust of an African princess is one of the most remarkable clocks in the Museum’s collection. The marble plinth contains a musical movement: a tiny pipe organ. On the hour, music would play and the figure’s eyes would open, showing the hour in roman numerals in her right eye and the minutes in arabic numerals in her left. By pulling her left earring, her eyes could be opened at any time—a feature that remains functional today.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mantel clock with musical movementMantel clock with musical movementMantel clock with musical movementMantel clock with musical movementMantel clock with musical movement

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.