Father Time
ca. 1745
This figure was designed to hold a pocket watch. Meissen’s version of Father Time strides relentlessly along, appropriately bearing a watch holder formed in an asymmetrical rococo shape. He also carries one of his familiar attributes, a scythe. This personification of Father Time came from early confusion between the Greeks’ word for time, chronos, and their old god of agriculture, Cronus, who carried a scythe.
Hard paste porcelain
14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm), height
Gift of Martha and Henry Isaacson
91.103
Photo: Paul Macapia