Cartel clock (one of a pair)

Jean Baptiste III Baillon|André Charles Boulle

ca. 1710, with later movement · Gilt bronze, horn, oak; enamel, brass, glass · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The original repeating movement of the wall clock, now replaced, was very practical. It would strike the nearest hour on demand when the attached strings were pulled, allowing the owner to hear the time in the dark. The cases with their trelliswork and rosette pattern in brass and blue-stained horn are each other’s opposites: the clock with a horn ground inlaid with brass and the barometer with a brass ground inlaid with horn. This marquetry is often referred to as Boulle work after the French royal cabinetmaker André Charles Boulle (1642-1732) who was a true master of this technique and to whom clock cases of this design have been attributed.

Artist

Jean Baptiste III Baillon|André Charles Boulle

Date

ca. 1710, with later movement

Medium

Gilt bronze, horn, oak; enamel, brass, glass

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019