In 1927
Telechron introduced a “Fifty Dollar Clock”, The Modernique, designed
by Paul T. Frankl. The clock was larger than other models, 7.75" high by
5.75" wide, with a bakelite base and rear panel, two-tone gold, silver, or blue paint
over the solid brass body, a blue chapter ring with black logo and numbers, and the
standard M1 rotor in a movement with a detachable cord.
Because of its high original cost only limited numbers were
sold, and the Modernique is hard to find today. Paul T.
Frankl was born in Austria in 1887. He trained as an architect in Vienna and Berlin,
and emigrated to the United States in 1914. He opened a gallery/showroom on Madison
Avenue in 1924, and developed his "Skyscraper" style of furniture design as
early as 1925. A major influence in modern decorative arts, he wrote the books New
Dimension in 1928 and Form and Reform in 1930. He helped establish the
American Designers Gallery and the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen.
Frankl died in New York in 1958. |