Today the question “What time is it?” is quickly answered by looking at any number of devices from watches to phones to computers. For millennia, however, determining the correct time was not so simple. In fact, it was not until the late Thirteenth Century that the first mechanical clocks were made, slowly replacing sundials and water clocks. It would take several hundred years before mechanical timekeepers became reliable and accurate.
A new exhibition at the Frick Collection, “Precision and Splendor: Clocks and Watches at The Frick Collection,” on view January 23⁆ebruary 2, explores the discoveries and innovations made in the field of horology from the early Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century.
The exhibition, to be shown in the new Portico Gallery, features 11 clocks and 14 watches from the Winthrop Kellogg Edey bequest, along with five clocks lent by collector Horace Wood Brock that have never before been seen in New York City.
Together, these objects chronicle the evolution over the centuries of more accurate and complex timekeepers and illustrate the aesthetic developments that reflected Europe’s latest styles. “Precision and Splendor” was organized by Charlotte Vignon, the Frick’s associate curator of decorative arts.
It is not known when, where or by whom the first mechanical clock was invented, but by the mid-Fifteenth Century several European towns had a monumental timekeeper, powered by falling weights, incorporated into the architecture of a church or public hall. Smaller versions of weight-driven clocks could also be found in the homes of a few wealthy individuals.
The earliest example in the exhibition that incorporates an escapement, a coiled spring and a fusee is a gilt-brass table clock made in Aix-en-Provence about 1530 by Pierre de Fobis. One of the most famous French clockmakers of his time, Fobis is still recognized today for his durable and highly refined movements.
The Frick’s clock is among Fobis’s rare surviving works and is one of the earliest extant spring-driven timekeepers. Its complex movement is set into a typical Sixteenth Century French clock case, inspired by classical architecture and ornament rediscovered during the Renaissance.
Germany was a leading producer of clocks during the Renaissance, and, by the late Sixteenth Century, Augsburg was an important center of their manufacture. The gilt-brass and silver table clock made by David Weber around 1653, most likely for his admission to the Augsburg clockmakers’ guild, exemplifies his expertise.
During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, the most sought-after watches were decorated with enamels to resemble miniature paintings on paper, parchment or ivory. A fine example on view is an early balance-spring watch made in Switzerland about 1685. The movement by Henry Arlaud is set into a lavish enamel case by Pierre Huaud II.
The precision and splendor of the art of clockmaking in France during the Eighteenth Century is well represented by several clocks from the collection of Horace Wood Brock. Although by this point their mechanisms had become both reliable and accurate, clocks continued to be valued as objects of distinction used to display their owners’ wealth and refinement.
An example is the lavish clock with its two matching vases in the exhibition. Made of a rare type of Chinese porcelain known as celadon bleu fleuri, the already costly vases were embellished with a movement by Jean Martin and gilt-bronze mounts shortly after their importation to France.
The exhibition concludes with important watches and clocks by the innovative horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet and his son, Antoine-Louis Breguet, who, at the end of the Eighteenth and beginning of the Nineteenth Century, created highly accurate movements set in sober and elegant cases. Writing in 1982 Winthrop Edey †who bequeathed his collection of clocks to the Frick in 1999 †described the elder Breguet as “a phenomenon without parallel.” Breguet’s combination of technical skill, refined design and craftsmanship gave him an unrivaled reputation.
The Frick Collection is at 1 East 70th Street. For more information, www.frick.org or 212-288-0700.
