Clock (c. 1695): Art, History and Details

Clock (c. 1695) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is André-Charles Boulle (French, 1642–1732); Balthazar Martinot II (French, 1636–1714).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Appointed cabinetmaker to King Louis XIV in 1672, André-Charles Boulle became a master of furniture making in France during the late 1600s until his death in 1732. Known primarily for his use of marquetry, in which metal patterns are inlaid into tortoiseshell then applied within the veneered surface of the furniture, Boulle established a level of quality and craftsmanship few others could achieve. As a result, his work found favor at the royal court and among other aristocrats and diplomats eager to impress the king. Often exhibiting stout architectural proportions with elegant groups of inlaid motifs, Boulle’s designs are an example of the intellectual fashion for contrasting ideas, materials, and motifs. With its relatively new scientific invention of a pendulum mechanism and the addition of a barometer, the mantel clock represented the wealth, prestige, and intellect of its owner.

Object facts

• Title: Clock
• Date: c. 1695
• Creator attribution: André-Charles Boulle (French, 1642–1732); Balthazar Martinot II (French, 1636–1714)
• Culture: France, late 17th Century
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: tortoise shell and brass inlay, gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 113.7 cm (44 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Furniture
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1967.153

A detail from the museum

The Latin phrase inscribed on this clock, Dirigit atque movet, can be translated as "time constantly moves on."

Collection credit

Gift of Family and Friends in honor of Emery May Holden Norweb and Raymond Henry Norweb on their fiftieth wedding anniversary

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 10 (December 1967): 302–346.
• Bruhn, Thomas P. “A Boulle Clock.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 55, no. 10 (December 1968): 315–320.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.