About This Artwork

Austria, Vienna
Case designer: Josef Hoffmann, 1870-1956
Metalwork designer: Carl Otto Czeschka, 1878-1960
Made by Wiener Werkstätte, Vienna

Tall-Case Clock, c. 1906

Painted maple, ebony, mahogany, gilded brass, glass, silver plated copper, clockworks; lacquered white; ebonized and natural wood marquetry; gilded brass face and door, repousse; patinated bronze bands, silver-plated copper dial hands
179.5 x 46.5 x 30.5 cm (70 5/8 x 18 1/4 x 12 in.)

Laura Matthews, and Mary Waller Langhorne endowments, 1983.37

European Decorative Arts
Gallery 248

In 1903 the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) was established by a number of artists, designers, and craftsmen to produce objects that were both useful and beautiful. The austere case of this Tall Case Clock was designed by architect Josef Hoffmann; its exuberant brass front doors were designed by Carl Otto Czeschka. The spiral patterns of the metal relief are in the late-19th-century Art Nouveau style, whereas the clean, simple lines of the clock itself are characteristic of the functional approach that came to dominate 20th-century design.

— Entry, Art Institute of Chicago Pocketguide, 2009, p. 33.