98th Auction
2018/11/10
Lot 254
Peter Pech, Munich, Height 110 mm, Diameter 59 mm, circa 1550
A one-handed Renaissance drum-shaped travelling timepiece in museum quality, with detachable alarm, surmounted by a bell. Very few of this early portable clocks have survived.
Case: bronze, firegilt, engraved, two-body. Dial: bronze, firegilt, chapter ring with Roman chapters from I to XII and Arabic chapters from 13 to 24, twelve tactile knob markers for night reading, the center engraved with wind rose and sun-ray motif, finely cut single iron hand. Movm.: iron, monogrammed "PP", gut string/fusee, verge escapement, two-arm iron balance without balance spring, hogs bristle regulator.
The device consists of a "clock-watch" with a drum-shaped alarm mechanism attached on the top. The walls are decorated with tendrils, petals and flowers. The iron alarm mechanism sits in the drum at the top and is mounted onto the case below; it has a tensioner on the underside, an intermediate wheel and a spindle, which - by engaging with a small cog - in rapid succession release or block the swing of the hammer striking the bell. The mechanism is released by a vertical iron pin at the underside of the movement plate, which is moved by the hour hand and unlocks the alarm mechanism.
The national museum in Copenhagen holds a similar clock with the stamp "M" over three dots and an angle. Another example with an iron movement (without alarm) dating from circa 1550 and probably made in Augsburg, is signed "M" and is part of the Frick Collection, New York ("The Art of Timekeeper: Masterpieces from The Winthrop Edey Bequest ", 11/14/01-02/24/02).
The same mark is also found on a table clock privately owned in Strasbourg which is dated 1621. This means that drum-shaped clocks were still being produced by the early 17th century. An almost identical clock-watch with tensioner (without alarm mechanism but with very similar case decoration and movement, i.e., with lower plate and upper ring board) is part of the collection Count Carlo Lamberti in Rome (Raccolta d'Arte della Fondazione Lamberti, Roma).
Jürgen Abeler‘s "Meister der Uhrmacherkunst" states that the clockmaker and gunsmith Peter Pech is mentioned in Munich’s list of smiths from 1541 to 1550.
Provenance:
- Auction at Koller in Zurich, March 2002
- Distinguished private collection in Vienna
A one-handed Renaissance drum-shaped travelling timepiece in museum quality, with detachable alarm, surmounted by a bell. Very few of this early portable clocks have survived.
Case: bronze, firegilt, engraved, two-body. Dial: bronze, firegilt, chapter ring with Roman chapters from I to XII and Arabic chapters from 13 to 24, twelve tactile knob markers for night reading, the center engraved with wind rose and sun-ray motif, finely cut single iron hand. Movm.: iron, monogrammed "PP", gut string/fusee, verge escapement, two-arm iron balance without balance spring, hogs bristle regulator.
The device consists of a "clock-watch" with a drum-shaped alarm mechanism attached on the top. The walls are decorated with tendrils, petals and flowers. The iron alarm mechanism sits in the drum at the top and is mounted onto the case below; it has a tensioner on the underside, an intermediate wheel and a spindle, which - by engaging with a small cog - in rapid succession release or block the swing of the hammer striking the bell. The mechanism is released by a vertical iron pin at the underside of the movement plate, which is moved by the hour hand and unlocks the alarm mechanism.
The national museum in Copenhagen holds a similar clock with the stamp "M" over three dots and an angle. Another example with an iron movement (without alarm) dating from circa 1550 and probably made in Augsburg, is signed "M" and is part of the Frick Collection, New York ("The Art of Timekeeper: Masterpieces from The Winthrop Edey Bequest ", 11/14/01-02/24/02).
The same mark is also found on a table clock privately owned in Strasbourg which is dated 1621. This means that drum-shaped clocks were still being produced by the early 17th century. An almost identical clock-watch with tensioner (without alarm mechanism but with very similar case decoration and movement, i.e., with lower plate and upper ring board) is part of the collection Count Carlo Lamberti in Rome (Raccolta d'Arte della Fondazione Lamberti, Roma).
Jürgen Abeler‘s "Meister der Uhrmacherkunst" states that the clockmaker and gunsmith Peter Pech is mentioned in Munich’s list of smiths from 1541 to 1550.
Provenance:
- Auction at Koller in Zurich, March 2002
- Distinguished private collection in Vienna
Sold
estimated
28.000—40.000 €
Price realized
42.200 €