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Mantel clock
French
late 18th century
Medium/Technique
Gilt bronze, bleu turquin marble, enamel dial
Dimensions
Overall: 45.7 × 20.3 × 19.1 cm (18 × 8 × 7 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild
Accession Number2019.646
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsTools and equipment – Timekeeping
Furniture – Clocks
Furniture – Clocks
DescriptionA Louis XVI ormolu-mounted bleu turquin marble mantle clock of truncated column form surmounted by a monkey under a palanquin amidst foliage, the stop-fluted column suspending a ribbon-tied, laurel-leaf-encased, white enamel dial enclosing a watch movement; the square base mounted with birds and roosters and hung with swags on tortoise supports and a canted square verde antico marble plinth; lacking some mounts.
ProvenanceBy 1938, Alphonse de Rothschild (b. 1878 – d. 1942) and Clarice de Rothschild (b. 1894 – d. 1967), Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild by Nazi forces (no. AR 655) [see note 1]; taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna; August 28, 1941, given over to the Federal Monuments Office, Vienna and subsequently moved to Alt Aussee; recovered by Allied forces; October 16, 1947, returned to Clarice de Rothschild, New York [see note 2]; by descent to her daughter, Bettina Looram de Rothschild (b. 1924 - d. 2012); about 1990/1992, given by Bettina Looram de Rothschild to members of her family; 2019, gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 19, 2019)
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This clock appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 655: "Standuhr, kleines Uhrwerk an einem Marmorsäulenstumpf, reich verziert mit Grotesken, Affen, Tierfiguren und vergoldete Bronze. Ende 18. Jhdt., französisch." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1025.
[2] This clock was catalogued at the Central Depot, and given over to the Federal Monuments Office in 1941. Card no. AR 655, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online. It was probably among the many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis, which were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. In 1947 Clarice de Rothschild visited the salt mines at Alt Aussee, where she was able to identify the crates of works of art from her family’s collection, facilitating its return shortly thereafter. The date of return is noted on the Central Depot card.
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This clock appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 655: "Standuhr, kleines Uhrwerk an einem Marmorsäulenstumpf, reich verziert mit Grotesken, Affen, Tierfiguren und vergoldete Bronze. Ende 18. Jhdt., französisch." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1025.
[2] This clock was catalogued at the Central Depot, and given over to the Federal Monuments Office in 1941. Card no. AR 655, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online. It was probably among the many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis, which were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. In 1947 Clarice de Rothschild visited the salt mines at Alt Aussee, where she was able to identify the crates of works of art from her family’s collection, facilitating its return shortly thereafter. The date of return is noted on the Central Depot card.