Elke Niehüser - Die französische Bronzeuhr - Eine Typologie der figürlichen Darstellungen

Niehüser, Elke: The French bronze clock. A typology of figurative representations
Munich: Callwey 1997
ISBN 3-7667-1277-2

With this work, Elke Niehüser presents a fundamental study of the figurative bronze clocks of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The focus is on the iconographic programmes of the French pendulums, whose depictions go far beyond mere functionality.

The author shows that the clocks often take up mythological, historical and allegorical themes in their artistic design. Figures of gods, heroes, messengers of love or "noble savages" reflect not only aesthetic preferences, but also social and cultural reflections of the time. In addition, genre depictions that thematise everyday scenes in a bourgeois context and thus document the transition from the courtly to the new bourgeoisie are examined.

In this analysis, the clocks appear as carriers of complex pictorial programmes in which the artistically designed cases form a spiritual and aesthetic unity with the theme of "time". The work is supplemented by an overview compiled by Clemens von Halem of 1365 verifiable bronze pendulums, which also makes the book an important reference work for collectors, art historians and the art trade.

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