Thirty Hour Clock

Art Historical Context

**Thirty Hour Clock**, a meticulously rendered depiction by artists Vincent P. Rosel and Gordon Saltar around 1936, captures the charm of an early American timepiece measuring 24 inches high and 14 inches wide. This watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite drawing on paper showcases the clock's elegant casework, dial, and hands with precise detail, highlighting its functional yet decorative design typical of 19th-century American craftsmanship. Created as part of the Index of American Design (IAD), a New Deal-era Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (1935–1942), this work exemplifies efforts to document and celebrate the nation's folk and decorative arts during the Great Depression. Rosel and Saltar, skilled IAD renderers, employed layered techniques—vibrant watercolors for rich tones, fine colored pencils for texture, and graphite for sharp outlines—to produce accurate, museum-quality records that preserved vanishing cultural artifacts for future generations. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's collection, the *Thirty Hour Clock* rendering underscores the IAD's legacy: over 15,000 sheets that not only safeguarded American design heritage but also provided employment for artists while fostering national pride in everyday artistry. Visitors will appreciate how such clocks, wound daily, embodied the ingenuity and simplicity of colonial life.