Atlas Clock of Tiffany & Co.

This is the beautiful clock that adorns the facade of Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue. The clock has a 9-foot-high figure of Atlas shouldering a large clock. The almost naked figure was sculpted by Henry Frederick Metzler, a friend of the store's founder, Charles Tiffany. Since 1853, it has adorned Tiffany's, first at 550 Broadway between Prince and Spring Streets and then at other locations before arriving here. According to Margot Gayle and Michele Cohen in their book, "The Art Commission and the Municipal Arts Society Guide to Manhattan's Outdoor Sculpture," published in 1988 by Prentice Hall Press, Metzler was a carver of ship figureheads and the Atlas clock here, is made of wood and painted to resemble bronze.