The “Measured Time” clocks have appeared previously on the market without attribution, identified only by the clockface “Hawkeye” label or the Stevenson Manufacturing Company label on the reverse. In his autobiography, Isamu Noguchi mentions that his first industrial design was a series of cake molds (which are believed to never have been put into production), followed by the case covering for a clock/kitchen timer called “Measured Time,” and then the baby monitor “Radio Nurse” and accompanying “Guardian Ear.” Because an image of “Measured Time” was never published, “Radio Nurse” had been noted as Noguchi’s first documented mass-produced design. Based on similarities in style, as well as correspondence and relationships in Indiana connecting Noguchi with the Stevenson Manufacturing Company, The Noguchi Foundation has recently confirmed the “Measured Time” case design to be the work of Isamu Noguchi. A discovery over eighty years in the making, Phillips considers it a privilege to introduce this model to the auction market with its rightful attribution.

The present model clock/kitchen timer is included in the current exhibition Isamu Noguchi, Patent Holder: Designing the World of Tomorrow, June 4, 2014–January 4, 2015 at The Noguchi Museum, and will be on view January 15, 2015–March 19, 2015 at the Dr. M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University in Queens, New York.