{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O374014"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O374014/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JX3851/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JX3851/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017JX3851","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O374014/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O374014","accessionNumber":"2378-1855","objectType":"Clock","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Gilded copper, the cover surmounted by a cast figure of Hercules and the Nemean lion, the base resting on the cast figures of four crouching lions. The base embossed and chased with gadroons and scrollwork, the sides embossed with scrolls, foliage and fruit and framed by columns topped with pinnacles. The cover in the form of a round tower with eight small pinnacles, the roof of cast and pierced work.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Gilt copper","id":"x34723"},{"text":"","id":""}],"techniques":[{"text":"embossed","id":"AAT53826"},{"text":"chased","id":"AAT54016"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gilded copper with cast figures, embossed and chased base, and tower with cast and pierced roof ","categories":[{"text":"Clocks & Watches","id":"THES48976"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2017JX3851"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES303520"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"clock","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Germany","id":"x28873"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1580-1600","earliest":"1580-01-01","latest":"1600-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"35.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"18.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"21.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"20","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"minimum weight","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"From the collection of Ralph Bernal (1783-1854). This was an enormous collection of metalwork, glass, ceramics and miniatures. Bernal was trained as a lawyer and served as MP from 1818-1852. Bernal was buying in the 1830s and 1840s when prices were low. The sale after his death by Christie, Manson and Woods took 32 days during which 4294 lots fetched nearly £71,000. The Museum bought 730 lots.\n\n<u>Provenance\n</u>Ralph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&amp;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.\n\r\nIn 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.\n\r\nWhen 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&amp;A), was the biggest single buyer. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Gilded copper, German, 1580-1600.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Henry G.Bohn, An Illustrated Catalogue of the Bernal Collection, London, 1857, p. 404 lot 3979\r\n'A CLOCK IN  HANDSOME METAL-GILT CASE, with dome top, surmounted by a figure of Hercules and the lion, engraved with fruits and flowers, on lion's feet, with dial on both sides. 19l 10s. Marlborough House."},{"reference":{"text":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Christie and Manson, <i>Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal</i> (London, 1855)","id":"AUTH403540"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hannah Young, ''The perfection of his taste': Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in 19th-century Britain', <i>Cultural and Social History</i>, 19:1 (2022), pp. 19-37 ","id":"AUTH403542"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Clock. Gilt metal, square, with Corinthian columns at the angles, the panels engraved with vases and scrolls, the basement chased with flowers, resting on four lions; within a gallery at the top is an open dome, surrounded by eight small pinnacles, and surmounted by a group of Hercules and the lion; dials back and front. German. 16th centy. H. 14 in., W. 8 1/4 in. by 7 1/2 in. Bought (Bernal coll. ) 19l 10s. 2378-'55","date":{"text":"1855","earliest":"1855-01-01","latest":"1855-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["2378-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2378","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-22","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}