Horace Wood Brock Collection
The Frick Collection is pleased to announce the extended loan of several important decorative arts objects from Horace Wood Brock, one of America’s most remarkable collectors. Over the last three decades, Dr. Brock has assembled an enviable collection of French and English decorative arts dating from 1675 to 1820, as well as paintings and Old Master drawings. Five French clocks from his collection are featured in the current special exhibition Precision and Splendor: Clocks and Watches at The Frick Collection, which opened in the Portico Gallery in January and will remain on view until February 2014. In addition to his clocks, four important pieces of French eighteenth-century decorative arts from Dr. Brock’s private collection are now on view in various permanent collection galleries at the Frick, where they will be enjoyed by museum visitors for the next several years.
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Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) The French word secrétaire derives from secret, or secrecy. Such pieces were created to secure private documents. When opened, the fall-front panel provides a leather-covered writing surface and reveals twelve interior drawers of varying sizes and shapes. The lower part of the cabinet (concealed by two doors) provides extra storage, as does the large drawer above... MORE » |
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Balthazar Lieutaud (d. 1780) Location: East Vestibule The impressive long-case regulator clock displayed in the East Vestibule near the museum’s Entrance Hall was made in Paris around 1750−55, when the fashion for rococo design was at its peak. A perfect example of this highly decorative style, the clock’s shape eschews straight lines in favor of a fanciful play of curves and counter-curves, adorned by heavy gilt-bronze mounts that call to mind... MORE » |
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Royal Manufactory of Sèvres Between 1786 and 1788, the Royal Manufactory of Sèvres produced a dozen round and oval vases in dark blue hard-paste porcelain that were fitted with gilt-bronze mounts attributed to the renowned bronzemaker Pierre-Philippe Thomire. The oval version shown here was commissioned in November of 1786 by Dominique Daguerre, the preeminent Parisian marchand-mercier (merchant of luxury goods... MORE » |
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Royal Manufactory of Sèvres Location: Fragonard Room This exquisite soft-paste potpourri vase on view in the Fragonard Room was made by the Royal Manufactory of Sèvres around 1763–70. Its gilt-bronze mounts were added later, around 1785. The vase is topped by a finial composed of a cluster of berries nestled inside an acanthus-leaf cup. The support — which incorporates goats’ heads with elaborately curved... MORE » |