Table Clock, sheet brass, engraved, pierced and gilt, Paris, ca.1600, signed 'B(?) Pichard, à Paris'

V&A — Summary

Since sheet brass was easy to engrave, it was ideal for making precision instruments such as sundials and clocks. France and Germany were leading producers from 1600 onwards. Clocks were prestigious objects. This example is beautifully pierced and engraved with the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. With table clocks such as this the dial is placed on the top.

V&A — Physical description

Square-based table clock with pierced domed lid, the body of sheet brass, the movement of steel, engraved and gilt, the sides depicting the story of the Good Samaritan.

V&A — Historical context

Sheet brass is soft and easy to engrave. It was ideal for making precision instruments such as sundials and clocks. France and Germany were leading producers from 1600 onwards. Clocks were prestigious objects. This example is beautifully pierced and engraved with the biblical story of the Good Samaritan.

V&A — Object history

Bought by the Museum from the Bernal Collection in 1855. This was an enormous collection of metalwork, glass, ceramics and miniatures belonging to Ralph Bernal, a lawyer and MP. The sale by Christie, Manson and Woods took 32 days during which 4294 lots fetched nearly £71,000. The Museum bought 730 lots. Provenance Ralph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour. In 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting. When Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer.

V&A — Production note

Signed: 'B. Pichard à Paris'

V&A gallery label

Belinda Gentle Metalware Gallery (Room 116) CLOCK Sheet brass, engraved, pierced and gilded France; about 1600 Signed ‘B(?) Pichart àParis’ Since sheet brass was easy to engrave, it was ideal for making precision instruments such as sundials and clocks. France and Germany were leading producers from 1600 onwards. Clocks were prestigious objects. This example is beautifully pierced and engraved with the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. Bought in 1855 from the Bernal Collection Museum no. 2375–1855