Morris Museum Presents Musically Timed: Continental Clock Makers and their Markets 

On View Friday November 4, 2022 – Sunday, March 26, 2023 

(Morristown, NJ, December 2022)— Explore how clock makers incorporated music and animation into their artworks, and in-turn added a wide range of music to their everyday lives. Musically Timed: Continental Clock Makers and their Markets traces the circulation of mechanical instruments from shop to store, home to auction, collection to museum. This exhibition features a variety of musical clocks, animated tableaux or Tableaux Vivants (Living Pictures) from Paris, France; Musical Picture Clocks from Vienna, Austria; even 18th century Mechanical Singing Birds from Switzerland. Musically Timed was made possible by loans from gracious private collectors, augmented by pieces from the museum’s Guinness Viewable Storage vault. It will be on view from Friday November 4, 2022–Sunday, March 26, 2023, at the Morris Museum.  

Throughout the 18th & early 19th centuries, keeping time and making music were increasingly paired attributes for a wide variety of exotic and even fantastic decorative artworks for the homes of the wealthy. Towards the end of this period, musical picture clocks, aminated tableaux, and Black Forest Trumpeter clocks were enjoyed by expanding markets fascinated by these examples of evolving and more affordable technology. These creations came from imaginative minds as well as the hands of numerous specialists: mechanician’s, sculptors, carvers, painters, gilders, taxidermists, miniaturists, and animators who all came together to fabricate these masterful decorative artworks. 

Designed to delight and inspire, animated tableaux provided great geographic and thematic variety—French and Swiss landscapes generally depicted pastoral settings, while Austrian paintings typically described significant historic events. The animated action could unfold slowly, as seemingly static paintings were set in motion. At times, an entire village came to life with passing trains and boats rocking on rippling waters. Some would be manually started for personal enjoyment while others would operate quietly by themselves for hours, waiting for visiting guests to notice on their own that the supposed static painting was actually moving! 

Highlights of this exhibition are the exquisite French Empire Gilt Ormolu Clock and the captivating Singing Birds in Cage Automaton Clock. Musically Timed also includes several objects from the Museum’s Guinness Collection that are on view for the first time. 

This exhibition is organized by Anne Ricculli, Ph.D., Director of Exhibitions and Collections, and Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum. 

Leadership support for this exhibition is provided by Will and Mary Leland.  

Press images can be downloaded here: Musically Timed Press Kit

About the Morris Museum 

Founded in 1913, the Morris Museum is an award-winning, multifaceted arts and cultural institution serving the public through its exhibitions and performances, which strive to interpret the past and discover the future through art, sound, and motion. The Museum is home to the historic and internationally-significant Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata. The Museum’s Bickford Theatre is a 312-seat performing-arts facility, offering unique programming in film, jazz, and live performance through its innovative series, Live Arts. As New Jersey’s only Smithsonian Affiliate, Morris Museum launched Spark!Lab, a dynamic, Smithsonian-created learning space which will inspire young visitors to create, collaborate, and innovate.  

Image Captions: (left) French Empire Gilt Ormolu Clock. Clockmaker, François Alibert, Paris, France, with musical movement by M. Bordier, Geneva, Switzerland, c. 1810-20. Murtogh D. Guinness Collection, Morris Museum. 2003.18.28a-c.. (center) Singing Birds in Cage Automaton Clock, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, c.1790, Loan. (right) Animated Tableau, Windmill with Waterwheel and Clock, Automaton, Bontems firm, Paris, France, c.1880. Murtogh D. Guinness Collection, Morris Museum. 2003.18.403ab.