Design for a Clock

Anonymous, French, 18th century|French, Sèvres, 18th century

ca. 1781–85 · Pen and black and brown ink, brush and yellow, green, gray, and rose wash · Drawings and Prints

This drawing of a small porcelain mantel clock was made for Prince Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen. When he was appointed governor to the Austrian Netherlands in 1781 he had a new palace built in the city of Brussels. He ordered drawings of the finest examples of Parisian furniture, to decide how best to furnish his new residence. This particular drawing is part of that group and reproduces a Sèvres porcelain clock, which must have been a very popular model at the time. Marie-Antoinette had a version in blue in her apartments at the castle of Versailles, and a similar example with a mechanism by the Master Clockmaker Charles Dutertre is kept in the department of European Sculpture and Decorative Art of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A version in green is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a lighter blue variant is known in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The different colors indicate that the model could likely be customized to fit the client’s preferences. This is also apparent from the oval medallion, held up by the female figure on top of the column, which is still attached in the clocks from Boston and Philadelphia and each display a different content.

Artist

Anonymous, French, 18th century|French, Sèvres, 18th century

Date

ca. 1781–85

Medium

Pen and black and brown ink, brush and yellow, green, gray, and rose wash

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Raphael Esmerian, 1960