Lot 148

Jeremias Pfaff, Augspurg, 140 mm x 140 mm, Height 300 mm, circa 1640
An impressive square horizontal splendour table clock with quarter hour / hour strike of museum quality
Case: bronze, brass and silver, partly firegilt, moulded, the sides with screwed on windows, ball-shaped feet, 2 rear bells. Dial: firegilt ball with silvered chapter ring. Movm.: square brass movement, firegilt, richly decorated with floral ornaments, signed, chain/fusee for going train, 2 barrels for striking trains, 2 hammers, the heads formed and engraved with fish, locking plate, verge escapement, plain two-arm iron balance without balance spring.
The horizontal cover plate on the square body of the clock is made to resemble a forest floor with roots, mushrooms and tree stumps, decorated with mother-of-pearl. The plate is framed by a fence; an oak trunk with branches and acorns rises in the centre of the scene and is surrounded by all kinds of animals such as frogs, lizards and slugs. A magnificent stag rests at the foot of the tree. The crown of the tree is replaced by a firegilt globe with a silvered hour ring and a falcon finial. The oak branches represent the hands of the clock.
Jeremias Pfaff I was born around 1618 in Ausburg and came from a family of clockmarks. He died in 1677, the same year his son Jeremias II (who was born in 1651) became a master clockmaker in Augsburg.
Juergen Abeler notes that both father and son produced many clocks, including church clocks and numerous table clocks - one of those shows a figure of Atlas and is in the possession of the Württembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart.

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