Acquired while traveling through France in 1812 and 1813, this elegant French clock was one of Stephen Van Rensselaer IV’s possessions that he took to the manor house in 1840, when he and his wife Harriet moved in. Its surface—richly ornamented with gilt metal olive branches, military cartouches, and a figure of the Roman goddess Minerva—complemented the couple’s neoclassical furnishings, although the neoclassical style was becoming outmoded by the 1840s.