A BRASS AND GLASS TABLE CLOCK, CIRCA 1937

This unusual clock by Perzel is made from the gears of an automobile. Matford, a French car manufacturer formed by an alliance of Ford Manufacturing Company in Michigan and Mathis, a French concern, was active in the late 1930s. They took advantage of the international attention given to the 1937 Exposition des Arts et Téchniques, by promoting their new line of cars in its showroom on the nearby Champs-Elysées. No doubt inspired by the Machine Art exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1934, Matford promoted the beauty of their products both inside and out--carburetors and crankshafts were displayed as art and judged to be just as beautiful as the cars themselves. In addition, several objects such as this clock were created from the inner workings of Matford cars, further promulgating the notion of machines as art.