{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O375806"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O375806/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KC3017/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KC3017/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KC3017","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC3018","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC3019","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC3020","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC3021","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019LX7865","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O375806/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O375806","accessionNumber":"2377-1855","objectType":"Clock","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"An hexagonal table clock with a gilt metal case and silver catrouche ornaments on the side decorated with masks with a silver dial resting on scroll feet.","physicalDescription":"Clock, hexagonal gilt metal case with, on the sides, applied silver cartouches with masks on scroll feet with silver dial.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gilded metal","id":"x42581"},{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"}],"techniques":[{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gilt metal hexagonal case with silver dial and applied silver cartouches with ornamental masks ","categories":[{"text":"Clocks & Watches","id":"THES48976"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Silver","id":"THES251836"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[{"text":"baroque","id":"AAT21147"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2017KC3017","2017KC3018","2017KC3019","2017KC3020","2017KC3021","2019LX7865"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES303505"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Clock","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Germany","id":"x28873"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1600-1700","earliest":"1600-01-01","latest":"1700-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased from the Bernal Collection","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"4 1/4","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1855","earliest":"1855-01-01","latest":"1855-12-31"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"DE JEAN QUARU LONDON","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"DE JEAN QUARU\r\nThere is no recorded clockmaker working in London with this name - might this be the name of a French immigrant maker working with Daniel Quare?"}],"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":"A table clock, hexagonal, with silver cartouche ornaments and masks round the sides, silver dial, resting on scroll feet. German. 17th century.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Henry G.Bohn, <u>An Illustrated Catalogue of the Bernal Collection</u>, London, 1857, p. 404 lot 3969\n'A clock, in hexagonal scalloped case of metal-gilt, with glass panels bordered with silver, on feet, with repeating movement'  £11. 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":[{"text":"German","id":"x46370"}],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"CLOCK. Gilt metal; a table clock, hexagonal, with silver cartouche ornaments and masks round the sides; silver dial, resting on scroll feet   17th cent<sup>y</sup>. <i>German.  </i>\nDiam. 4<sup> 1/<sub>4; </sub><sup><sub>   </sub></sup></sup>H.3 <sup>1/</sup><sub>4 in.. </sub>Bought (Bernal coll.)11l..","date":{"text":"1855","earliest":"1855-01-01","latest":"1855-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["2377-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2377","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-24","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}