Let’s Face It
In Jerome Simon’s “Design in Time and Light” (Lot 321), the imposing brass base sprouts a lighter-than-air glowing circle that is the translucent face. Featured in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), this piece resembles a 19th century telescope reconfigured into a modern timepiece. Its intricately automated mirrors split a beam of light into three glowing projections of minute, hour, and second – and is the movement of the second-hand” that gives the piece a subtle, constant orbit of light. This is a sculpture first, timepiece second – if Jack Bauer had only this to find out how long ’til the bomb goes off, he would not be happy. But for everyone else, this is a dream in solid metal.
Lot 320, the Mid-Century Modern General Electric clock is another large, heavy object that finds a way to soar effortlessly. With its imposing industrial face delicately balanced by the sculptural wood a steel counterweight, this American sophisticate evokes the ring-a-ding-ding, chroma and mahogany corner of the jet age: feet on desk, third Scotch neat in hand, here is the clock to tell you it’s time to leave the office and start the real drinking. If only this dispensed cigarettes we’d have known what to get Don Draper for Father’s Day.
Lot Information:
Lot 320
Mid Century Modern
Clock
General Electric designed circa 1960
Retains General Electric label
With stand 15.25″h x 13″ x 10.5″diameter
Estimate $800 – 1,200
June 26, 2011 Modern Art & Design Auction
Lot 321
Jerome Simon
Design in Time & Light
designed 1981
Conceptual lighted clock
Retains a label verso
14.5″h x 12″diameter x 9″d
Estimate $2,000 – 3,000
June 26, 2011 Modern Art & Design Auction
