Hooded wall clock with calendar
Ahasuerus I Fromanteel
ca. 1660–65 · Case: ebony and oak veneered with ebony, ebonized wood, gilded brass; Dial: gilded brass with silvered-brass chapter ring; Movement: brass, steel · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Ahasuerus Fromanteel introduced the pendulum clock to England shortly after its invention by Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens in 1656. The use of the pendulum necessitated a new case form for the clock movement: early English pendulum clocks were housed in severely architectural wooden cases. The design of this clock, whose applied Doric columns supporting the architrave and pediment are of unusually pleasing proportions, may have been influenced by the work of the English architect Christopher Wren.
- Artist
- Ahasuerus I Fromanteel
- Date
- ca. 1660–65
- Medium
- Case: ebony and oak veneered with ebony, ebonized wood, gilded brass; Dial: gilded brass with silvered-brass chapter ring; Movement: brass, steel
- Culture
- British, London
- Department
- European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Credit line
- Bequest of Irwin Untermyer, 1973
