CULTURE

The Restoration Of a Unique Clock Completed

The State Hermitage Museum announced Tuesday that it had completed the restoration of a unique clock.

Maria Zinchenko

For The St. Petersburg Times

The musical clock was made in 1792 by English craftsman Eardley Norton and the Gravell and Tolkein company by the special command of Catherine the Great, and kept in the storage at the Hermitage until this week.

It is made of bloodwood, gilded bronze and marble, with brass, steel, wood and even leather fittings.

Among the melodies the clock plays are the British national anthem, a song, a march and a Russian dance. As the clock laboratory manager Mikhail Guryev said, the clock may be wound an indefinite number of times but the chiming can barely be heard without a microphone, because the sound of the original music is not louder than the spoken voice.

Support for the restoration came from South Korean electronics company Samsung. At the opening of the exhibit, Lee Jae Hong, representing Samsung, a partner of the Hermitage for the past ten years, drew a parallel between his company’s reputation for technical innovation and the marvels of the restored clock.

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