The clock in this anteroom has a painted (originally blue) wooden case with gilded ornament. On the front panel are two attractive female portraits and a biblical scene. In the centre is an engraving depicting ships. The timepiece, made in John Drury’s London workshop has hour, minute and second hands, a calendar and a musical mechanism. Such clocks were an exotic rarity in early-18th-century Russia. This is an exceptional example of an authentic item of furnishing from the Menshikov palace that has survived down to the present.