Skip to main content
Collections Menu
#191: By Aimee Ng, Curator Transcript

The scholar, collector, and New York social figure Winthrop Kellogg Edey amassed an important collection of European clocks and timepieces, ranging in date from about 1500 to 1830. He bequeathed his collection to the Frick in 1999, transforming the Frick into a significant center for the art of clockmaking in the United States. This case represents some of the finest objects of the Edey collection.

Clockmaking married the fine craft of metalworking with technical innovations. Pierre de Fobis, the maker of the smallest clock in this case, dated around 1530, was among the most famous clockmakers of sixteenth-century France. This is one of the earliest surviving spring-driven timekeepers. The end of a clockmaker’s long apprenticeship was marked by the making of a highly achieved clock, referred to as a “masterpiece”; Fobis’s clock appears to be the earliest known signed and dated masterpiece.

The other clocks in the case are by German clockmakers. Veyt Schaufel’s sixteenth-century clock is surmounted by a figure (possibly Minerva) holding a church bell; perched next to her is nature’s timekeeper, the rooster. David Weber’s tall, tower-shaped clock from the seventeenth century is equipped with many dials, including an astrolabe—an astronomical device—and an alarm. The lion clock by Cristoph Miller is an automaton: when wound, its eyes flick from side to side with each tick, and its jaw opens when the clock chimes. Extraordinary objects like these are a reminder that the art of clockmaking was about much more than the hours of the day.

Automaton Lion Clock

Date1640
MediumGilt bronze and ebony on oak
Dimensions13 5/16 x 9 1/2 x 6 9/16 in. (33.8 x 24.1 x 16.7 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Winthrop Kellogg Edey, 1999
Accession number1999.5.137
Not On View
Cabinet with Pictorial and Tendril Marquetry of Tortoiseshell, Brass, Pewter, and Ebony (One of…
After André-Charles Boulle
19th century
Cabinet with Pictorial and Tendril Marquetry of Tortoiseshell, Brass, Pewter, and Ebony (One of…
After André-Charles Boulle
19th century
Image of a cabinet in black and gold Japanese lacquer and ebonized wood with gilt bronze mounts…
Bernard van Risenburgh II
ca. 1764
Front view of Boulle Kneehole Desk with marquetry of pewter, gilt brass and tortoiseshell and l…
Workshop of André-Charles Boulle
ca. 1692−95, with later alterations ca. 1770 (before 1777)
Image of a cabinet made from Japanese black and gold laquer and ebonized wood with gilt bronze …
Bernard van Risenburgh II
ca. 1764
Writing Table with Tendril Marquetry of Tortoiseshell
André-Charles Boulle
ca. 1710, with later alterations
Commode with Tendril Marquetry (One of a Pair)
After André-Charles Boulle
ca. 1820−50
Commode with Tendril Marquetry (One of a Pair)
After André-Charles Boulle
ca. 1820−50
Front view of Hague Clock with silver dial set against an architectural case made of veneered t…
Benjamin Lisle
probably ca. 1678–85
Copyright © 1998-2024 The Frick Collection. All Rights Reserved.
FacebookYoutubeInstagramTwitterGoogle Arts and Culturemenusearch2xX