Longcase clock with calendar

Longcase clock with calendar

Joseph Knibb

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Joseph Knibb was an outstanding clockmaker in London in the generation that included such illustrious names as Fromanteel and Thomas Tompion. The familiar longcase, or grandfather, clock exemplified here was developed in England in the latter part of the seventeenth century in response to improvements in the technology of the pendulum. The older narrow-trunked case gave way to a form with wider proportions, which allowed the new, long pendulum to swing undisturbed. The gilded and matted dial of this splendid clock has a silvered-brass skeleton chapter of hours typical of Knibb’s finest work. Knibb’s movement goes for eight days on a single winding and strikes the hours and quarters on separate bells.

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.