Bronze Table Clock
European Making
Metalworking
Ca. 1805
Reg. 05-044

This is a table clock from the early 19th century. It has four Roman citizen figures, and an engraving that reads “Palace of El Libertador Simón Bolívar”. The figures represent a Louis David painting called Oath of the Horatii, which has a clearly political message, for in it the Horatii make an oath to defend Rome from the Curatii. This kind of painting was popular in ornamental objects such as the clock found in El Salón de la Estufa, The Stove Room, in the Quinta. This clock was in the San Carlos Palace, the old governmental house, during El Libertador’s administration. Then it was transferred to the National Museum to later, in 1924, arrive in the Quinta. It was one of the Bolivarian Collection’s first pieces. Similar objects are found in the Stockholm Palace and in Buckingham Palace.