Clock (pendule)

Clock (pendule)

Benjamin Gray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

French rococo clocks were often decorated with porcelain figures. Porcelain cases made specifically for clocks are less common, and they were prized in England as well as in France. There is evidence that this case originally contained another movement, probably by a French clockmaker, but the case is not much older than the present movement, and the movement may, indeed, have been made as a substitute for the original one. Gray was appointed clockmaker to George II (1683–1760) in 1742. The following year he went into partnership with his future son-in-law, Justin Vulliamy, and together they produced a number of clocks for their first royal patron and, later, for his successor.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.