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An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 1
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 2
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 3
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 4
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 5
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 6
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 7
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 8
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 9
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 10
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 11
An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield. image 12
Lot 114

An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia
The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield.

Fine Clocks
2 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£60,000 - £80,000

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An exceptionally large, fine and rare late 16th/early17th century gilt engraved brass Central European horizontal table clock with portrait medallions commemorating Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anne of Bohemia

The backplate punched G.I.G * in a shield.
The 7.5inch square dial framed by a raised stepped cast edge engraved to the upper side with a running border of stylised wheatears and four flowerheads, the main dial engraved with a twice I-XII Roman chapter ring set with 24 touch pins, (the two at XII set slightly higher than the others), with triangular half-hour markers and shaded alternating quarter-hour track, framing a 1-24 hour Arabic ring and twelve representations of the Zodiac, with their signs. The centre set with a 3.25inch Arabic 24-hour alarm setting dial decorated with a radiating sun centre piece, the facetted steel single hand fixed on the alarm disc and rotating with the disc.
Each of the four sides of the case centred by a crisply cast foliate wreath framed by interlaced strapwork and shaded foliate scrolls below a running border of pierced stylised hearts to allow the sound of the bell inside to emanate, the lower edge with stepped base, all raised on shaped cast feet. The four medallions commemorate the marriage of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia to Anne of Bohemia and Hungary on 25th May 1521; he is shown in middle age, facing towards the left, wearing a hat, cape and the order of the Golden Fleece; on the opposite side of the case his wife is shown facing to the right with her intricately detailed hair tied high on the back of her head; between them the medallions show the crests of the Crowned eagle and lion rampant. The underside of the case is decorated with a large engraved roundel depicting a half-length portrait of a bearded gentleman, a jewelled chain around his neck and a sword in his right hand, framed by engraved spandrels of a single flowerhead. The panel with sprung catch and lifting off to reveal the gilt inside surface with shaped and decorated steel locking pieces.
The main timekeeping movement set between substantial brass plates united by four heavy steel square-section pillars secured with stylised flowerhead caps, the going train powered by a wooden gut fusee of 11 turns to a steel spring barrel with pinned caps, each wheel of three crossings and terminating in a steel verge 'scape wheel and un-sprung chamfered steel balance mounted on the backplate held on a decoratively shaped cock. The strike train with similar, smaller steel pinned barrel and wooden gut fusee of 6 turns, the outside countwheel mounted on the backplate, striking on a large straight-sided bell mounted between the frontplate and dial, supported on baluster shaped pillars.

21cms wide, 14cms high (8.25ins wide, 5.5ins high).

Footnotes

*The stamp G.I.G. appears to be interchangeable with C.I.G. – see Abeler, J. (1977) Meister der Uhremacherkunst. Wuppertal, p.199 and p.107. Mention is made of a clock with this mark in 'a Prague Museum', further research reveals that the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague has a horizontal table clock dated to circa 1550. It bears remarkably similar floral scroll engraving to the current lot.

Additional information