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.
Table Clock with Astronomical and Calendrical Dials
Most likely made for his admission to the Augsburg clockmakers guild, this impressive table clock exemplifies David Weber’s great expertise. The complex mechanism includes seven dials that provide astronomical, calendrical, and horary information. The prominent central dial on the front—an astronomical device called an astrolabe—features twenty-one star pointers and two concentric hands that correspond to the sun and moon. The smaller dial beneath it is an alarm. Although Weber chose the popular tower form for the clock’s case, he demonstrated his skill and inventiveness in its finely worked surfaces. His silver and brass floral arrangements and figures exhibit brilliant chasing (a technique in which the malleable metal is pushed inward to create tiny grooves for texture) and repoussé (hammering the metal from the reverse side in order to create a design in relief).
Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.
