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Clock

Artist Pellegrino Amorotti, Rome, Italy (active mid-18th century)
DateMid-18th century
MediumWood, enamel, and gilding
DimensionsOverall: 29 15/16 × 12 5/8 × 6 7/8 inches (76 × 32 × 17.5 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: Lillian M. Diveley Fund
Object number2026.9
On View
Not on view
DescriptionClock of waisted form, with a white enamel dial with Roman hours and Arabic minutes, signed Pellegrino/A...orotti/Rome and with silent/strike Non Suona/Suona designations, with a false pendulum aperture to the matted center, the twin barrel movement with four rear-pinned baluster-turned pillars, verge escapement and rack strike and alarm on two bells, the case profusely carved with flowers, foliage and C-scrolls, the arched top surmounted by rockwork issuing crossed sickles, the sides with sounding panels carved with pierced entwined branches, on scrolled feetExhibition History

Time and Man, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA, March 29-May 11, 1952, no. 36.

The Century of Mozart, The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO, January 15-March 4, 1956, no. 220.


Provenance

With Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., New York, stock no. A278, by July 11-August 1944 [1];

With Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co. on joint account with Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles, CA, stock no. 11701, August 1944-May 1949 [2];

With Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles, CA, stock no. 12508, May 1949-February 13, 1962 [3];

Purchased from Loewi by John Yeon (1910-1994), Portland, OR, February 13, 1962 [4];

Sale, 500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe, Including Oriental Carpets, Christie’s New York, November 23, 2010, lot 254;

Private collection, by 2026;

Purchased at the private collector’s sale, An Italian Collecting Journey – Chapter II, online sale, March 26, 2026, lot 316, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2026.

NOTES:

[1] This clock is referenced in a letter from Adolph Loewi to Paul Byk, Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., July 11, 1944, in which Loewi accepts Byk’s offer to take a half share in its ownership. Frick Collection Archives, MS.129 Loewi-Robertson Archive, Correspondence-Seligmann, Rey & Co., July-December 1944, and stock book 1939-1945. Copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

[2] Ibid. Additional stock numbers for this object in the Loewi-Robertson Archive are 12508, R71, L344, and A896.

[3] Letter from Henry Falkenstein, Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., to Adolph Loewi, May 17, 1949, regarding the division of objects their firms owned jointly. Frick Collection Archives, MS.129 Loewi-Robertson Archive, Correspondence-Seligmann, Rey & Co., 1949. Copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

[4] John Yeon (1910-1994) was a Portland-based architect whose designs are best known for their connections to the natural landscape. In his midlife career, he focused on designing museum galleries, including the Parker-Grant Gallery at the Nelson-Atkins—the museum’s first gallery dedicated to contemporary art—which opened in 1971. Yeon was also a prominent collector of Asian art and 18th-century European decorative arts. Frick Collection Archives, MS.129 Loewi-Robertson Archive, Stock book 1939-1968, 20. Copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Published References

Time and Man: An Idea Illustrated by an Exhibition, exh. cat. (San Francisco: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1952), n.p., cat. no. 36.

“The Century of Mozart,” The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin 1, no. 1 (1956): 41, cat. 220.

500 Years. Decorative Arts Europe, Christie’s New York, 23 November 2010 (New York: Christie’s, 2010): lot 254, p. 116 (ill.)

Sotheby’s Milan. An Italian Collecting Journey: 16th–20th Century Paintings and Decorative Arts. The Online Sale, 17–26 September 2025,  lot 250 (https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/an-italian-collecting-journey-16th-20th-century-paintings-and-decorative-arts-the-online-sale-miol55/an-italian-green-painted-and-parcel-gilt-clock; accessed 4/24/2026) (ill.)

Sotheby’s Milan. An Italian Collecting Journey—Chapter II: The Online Sale, 16–26 March 2026, lot 316 (https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2026/an-italian-collecting-journey-chapter-ii-the-online-sale/an-italian-green-painted-and-parcel-gilt-clock; accessed 4/3/2026) (ill.)


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