Mantel clock
late 18th century
Medium/TechniqueGilt bronze, bleu turquin marble, enamel dial
DimensionsOverall: 45.7 × 20.3 × 19.1 cm (18 × 8 × 7 1/2 in.)
Credit LineGift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild
Accession number2019.646
On View
On viewClassificationsFurniture
Collections
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.
about 1780
