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Lot 103
A late 16th century South German gilt brass striking square horizontal table clock South German 1
11 December 2019, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £18,812.50 inc. premium
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A late 16th century South German gilt brass striking square horizontal table clock
South German
The cast gilt brass case with four high relief panels depicting four scenes from the Garden of Eden, repeated on two panels - the first panel shows God creating Eve from the reclining Adam's rib; he then commands them not to touch the forbidden fruit; the second panel depicts the moment Eve accepts the apple from the serpent and the final scene shows them being driven out of the Garden by a sword-brandishing Angel (one pair of panels pierced to allow the sound of the bell to emanate), within moulded borders and raised on four lion's paw feet, the 4.5 inch square horizontal dial framed by engraved winged cherubs heads to the corners, with 24 touch-pins around the Roman dial marked with twice I-XII with floating star half hour markers framing a wheatear border, and an Arabic 1-24 dial with simple cross half hour markers, centred by a sunburst engraved disc carrying the alarm hand, with a (later) blued-steel hour hand, the iron movement united by four double-baluster pillars screwed through both plates, the going train with slim iron gut fusee to a verge escapement to a plain, unsprung steel balance regulated by a hog's bristle mounted on a pivotted arm with dotted amplitude scale, the strike train also with slim fusee and engraved brass countwheel mounted on the backplate activating the strike on the bell mounted between the plates and sitting over a pierced geometric pattern.
8cms (3ins) high (1)
The cast gilt brass case with four high relief panels depicting four scenes from the Garden of Eden, repeated on two panels - the first panel shows God creating Eve from the reclining Adam's rib; he then commands them not to touch the forbidden fruit; the second panel depicts the moment Eve accepts the apple from the serpent and the final scene shows them being driven out of the Garden by a sword-brandishing Angel (one pair of panels pierced to allow the sound of the bell to emanate), within moulded borders and raised on four lion's paw feet, the 4.5 inch square horizontal dial framed by engraved winged cherubs heads to the corners, with 24 touch-pins around the Roman dial marked with twice I-XII with floating star half hour markers framing a wheatear border, and an Arabic 1-24 dial with simple cross half hour markers, centred by a sunburst engraved disc carrying the alarm hand, with a (later) blued-steel hour hand, the iron movement united by four double-baluster pillars screwed through both plates, the going train with slim iron gut fusee to a verge escapement to a plain, unsprung steel balance regulated by a hog's bristle mounted on a pivotted arm with dotted amplitude scale, the strike train also with slim fusee and engraved brass countwheel mounted on the backplate activating the strike on the bell mounted between the plates and sitting over a pierced geometric pattern.
8cms (3ins) high (1)
Footnotes
The four relief panels illustrate the creation of Eve from Adam's rib, God introducing Adam and Eve to the Garden of Eden, Eve being given the apple by the serpent with Adam standing beside the tree and Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden; each repeated on opposed sides.
The majority of cases in this school are of circular section, but a similar square example by Johann Reinhold the Elder can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Accession number 29.52.4, gift of Mrs Simon Guggenheim in 1929. Three others are illustrated in Maurice, K. (1976) Die deutsche Raderuhr Band 2. Munchen: C.H. Beck, figures 527, 531 and 532, all dated to the third quarter of the 16th century.