Precision and Splendor: Breguet Clocks and Watches at the Frick Collection
Luxury watchmakers Breguet have sponsored “Precision and Splendor: Clocks and Watches at The Frick Collection”. This new exhibition showcases one of the most important collections of European timepieces in the United States at the Frick Collection in New York City.
Today the question “What time is it?” is quickly answered by looking at any number of devices around us, from watches to phones to computers. For millennia, however, determining the correct time was not so simple. In fact, it was not until the late thirteenth century that the first mechanical clocks were made, slowly replacing sundials and water clocks. It would take several hundred years before mechanical timekeepers became reliable and accurate. This exhibition explores the discoveries and innovations made in the field of horology from the early sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
The exhibition, to be shown in the new Portico Gallery, features eleven clocks and fourteen watches from the Winthrop Kellogg Edey bequest, along with five clocks lent by the collector Horace Wood Brock that have never before been seen in New York City. Together, these objects chronicle the evolution over the centuries of more accurate and complex timekeepers and illustrate the aesthetic developments that reflected Europe’s latest styles.
Precision and Splendor: Clocks and Watches at The Frick Collection was organized by Charlotte Vignon, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts, The Frick Collection. Major funding for the exhibition is provided by Breguet. Additional support is generously provided by The Selz Foundation, Peter and Gail Goltra, and the David Berg Foundation.
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“Precision and Splendor: Clocks and Watches at The Frick Collection” will run until February 2, 2014. The Frick Collection is located at 1 E 70th St in New York. For more information call (212) 288-0700 or visit their website.
