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.
Clock with Astronomical and Calendrical Dials
The clock completed at the conclusion of an apprentice clockmaker’s long training was called a “masterpiece.” It was only after the guild’s acceptance of this expensive and challenging work that a craftsman could be qualified as a master and thus establish his own shop and sign his work. This clock, the earliest known signed and dated masterpiece, includes several astronomical and calendrical dials to provide time according to various systems. It is surmounted by a figure, possibly Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, technical skill, and invention, identified with the Greek goddess Athena. In her right hand, she holds a church bell, and at her side stands a rooster. Before mechanical clocks were invented, the bell’s toll and the rooster’s morning crow traditionally kept time.
Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.
