Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Reloj ojo de buey del patio de la Caja General [Clock in the Main Banking Hall]

Image caption
RAMÓN GARÍN

Reloj ojo de buey del patio de la Caja General [Clock in the Main Banking Hall]

  • c. 1891
  • Wood, metal, glass
  • 135 Ø cm
  • Cat. R_139
  • Comissioned from the artist in 1891
  • Observations: Madrid School. Round wall-mounted.
By:
Amelia Aranda Huete

The four walls of the Main Banking Hall (now the Banco de España library) are made of cast iron openwork, painted white. The clock is fitted to one of these walls.

The circular face of the round wall clock is surrounded by a metal frame, simulating a wooden finish, decorated on the inside with a golden bezel. The face is brass with a layer of white porcelain around which are arranged the Roman numerals. The hands are in patinated metal. The face is inscribed with the name: R. GARIN // MADRID. The face is protected by a circular glass panel.

Amelia Aranda Huete

 
By:
Amelia Aranda Huete
Ramón Garín
Active: Madrid 1891 - Madrid 1918

Ramón Garín was a Madrid clockmaker with a shop on Calle Príncipe in Madrid. He styles himself as the successor to Max Schnabel, a clockmaker of German origin who set up his workshop in 1840, on surviving invoices from the firm, one of which is preserved in the historical archive of the Banco de España. Garín specialised in the manufacture and sale of precision timepieces and supplied instruments to the Astronomical Observatory. He was the Spanish representative of David Glasgow, who made the clock that was installed in the tower on the Banco de España building. Garín also installed another clock by Glasgow in the Santa Cruz Orphanage in the town of Carabanchel.

Amelia Aranda Huete