Exhibition Guide
Mantel Clock
Audio
A letter from the maker
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Audio
Seeing and hearing this clock
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Additional Images
Art Object Info
After George Washington’s death in 1799, entrepreneurial Europeans created household objects bearing the president’s likeness for the American market. In 1815, a Baltimorean received correspondence from the French maker of this clock, describing a plan to produce such timepieces in two sizes embellished with a “statue of the great Washington.” The well-known tribute “First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen” on the banner below the clockface quotes Major General Henry Lee’s eulogy of Washington, published as a pamphlet in the early 1800s. The clockface is inscribed “Rue Michelle le Comte, No. 33”, distinguishing Jacques Dubuc, who worked at that Paris address, from his younger brother, Jean Baptiste, another clockmaker associated with such timepieces. Can you see any differences between the large and small versions?
Art Object Info
After George Washington’s death in 1799, entrepreneurial Europeans created household objects bearing the president’s likeness for the American market. In 1815, a Baltimorean received correspondence from the French maker of this clock, describing a plan to produce such timepieces in two sizes embellished with a “statue of the great Washington.” The well-known tribute “First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen” on the banner below the clockface quotes Major General Henry Lee’s eulogy of Washington, published as a pamphlet in the early 1800s. The clockface is inscribed “Rue Michelle le Comte, No. 33”, distinguishing Jacques Dubuc, who worked at that Paris address, from his younger brother, Jean Baptiste, another clockmaker associated with such timepieces. Can you see any differences between the large and small versions?