The "Pompadour Clock" is ticking again in the New Palace - 60 years after its removal

One of the most artistically significant pendulum clocks from Frederick the Great's collection, the Pompadour Clock, has returned to its original place in the New Palace in Potsdam after 60 years. According to a note from 1784, it was located in one of the palace's guest apartments.

Transported to Russia as war booty in 1945, the pendulum clock, richly equipped with precious materials and technical refinements, returned to Potsdam in 1958 in a desolate condition; the clockwork and striking mechanism were no longer functional, and the Boulle marquetry—inlay work with tortoiseshell and brass—was damaged.

It wasn't until October 2004 that the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg was able to begin the restoration thanks to generous financial support from the J. Paul Getty Foundation in Los Angeles. The restorers also restored the carillon mechanism with its various melodies.

Frederick II allegedly acquired the clock from the estate of Madame de Pompadour, who died in Versailles in 1764 and became known as the mistress of the French King Louis XV. The decorations on the clock do indeed suggest that the work of art originated from the Bourbon's circle; perhaps he gave it to his lover.

The "Pompadour Clock" in the New Palace Potsdam

On the history of the clock.

According to the Potsdam publisher Carl Christian Horvath (1752-1837), this clock also originates from an estate auction of Madame de Pompadour (+1764). It is known that Frederick II had art agents in Paris purchase works of art (including clocks) for his newly built palaces.

There are no definitive sources proving that the clock actually belonged to Madame de Pompadour. However, its imposing appearance suggests that it was created in the immediate entourage of the French king. It is first mentioned in an inventory of the New Palace in 1784.

In 1790, it was brought to the New Marble Palace by Frederick William II, and a new Louis XVI-style table was built for it. It returned to the New Palace in 1878 when Crown Prince Frederick William (later Emperor Frederick III) resided there.

In 1921, it returned to the Marble Palace. In 1945, it was transported to the Soviet Union as war booty, but it returned in 1958 in a desolate condition.

Source: historical-zeitmesser.de, welt.de