Gouda Royal Faience Studio (Plateelbakkerij)
Art Nouveau Clock
circa 1920
One should be able to tell instantly that this clock is of a high-quality make. Beautifully hand-painted, as all Gouda earthenware creations usually are, the shell of this clock seemingly quivers with the lethargic stirrings of its bees and bobbing flower buds. A weightlessness of light colours imbues its body with a pulse that is slightly ethereal, as if lit from within by a source that has not yet faded since the clock’s crafting nearly one hundred years ago. In addition to these classic turn-of-the-century touches, the stature of the clock is also structured in a style that embodies Art Nouveau ideals: its footing is sturdy but unimposing, with the slight bend to each leg gently drawing together the face with its lower torso, forming a soft-edged silhouette of a suggested triangle (the number three being one element of nature’s flawlessness of pyramidal life structure). The contours of the clock’s stature adhere to similar guidelines, whereby they are confident in their purpose to contain its curves and swimming colours, and remaining all the while humbly reserved in their allotted linear negative space. Though in all, what genuinely conveys the calm beauty of this piece is not, perhaps, the combined effects of its many details, but that of its initial function - the continual, reverberating echoes of each second’s tick, loyal to time since 1920.
