A prominent architect, designer, and gallerist, Paul T. Frankl was one of the most important proponents of Modernism in the United States in the early twentieth century. Frankl studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and the Technical University of Berlin. Although his education was interrupted by conscripted military service, he completed his degree in 1911 and then went to work for various architectural offices across Europe. He voyaged to the United States on an exploratory trip in 1914 and was still abroad when World War I broke out. Knowing that he could not return to Europe, Frankl decided to settle in New York City and began a new life there.¹ By the mid-1920s Frankl had made a name for himself as an authority on Modern aesthetics. The Skyscraper Furniture line that he developed in 1925, inspired by the stepped-back profile of New York City skyscrapers, is now an icon of American Art Deco design.²

Created at the same time that Frankl was working on the Skyscraper Furniture line, his Modernique clock incorporates references to the skyscraper form with the glamour of Art Deco style. Composed of Bakelite, silver, chrome, and enamel, the design combines luxurious elements with new material innovations. Modernique was the largest and most expensive model manufactured by the Warren Telechron Company, which retailed the clock for fifty dollars. Although aesthetically triumphant, the clock was not commercially successful. The company ceased production of Modernique a few years after its introduction, and surviving examples are exceedingly rare. —Sarah Marie Horne