Clock

Laurent Ridel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1800, Deverberie & Cie, a Parisian factory that made ornamental bronzes of various kinds, was prepared to supply more than thirty varieties of clockcases, each of a different design. Jean-Simon Deverberie designed the cases and made the basic models for casting, and they were cast, gilded, and assembled in his factory. The bronzes had interchangeable parts that could be assembled in various ways, and some cases were provided by the factory with movements by Parisian clockmakers, Ridel among them. To judge from the number of surviving examples, one of the more popular products of the factory was the pendule aux indiens, or clock with Native American figures. These figures were ultimately derived from European personifications of the Four Continents, in which the natives of America are to be identified by their feathered skirts and headdresses. But as with the Chinese figures, European ideas of faraway peoples were sometimes hazy during this period, and on the Museum’s clock, as elsewhere, Native Americans were portrayed with the features and color of Africans.

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