Lot 59

Southern German, Height 530 mm, circa 1600
An important large quarter hour striking Renaissance iron clock of museum quality, with automaton, moon phase and date indication
Case: square closed iron case, polychrome painted, 2 bells, 2 hammers. Dial: painted hour chapter ring with radial Roman numerals, central date disc with Arabic numerals, finely cut iron hands. Movm.: iron frame, iron going train in 3 levels with weight winding spools, verge escapement, rear iron pendulum.
Pediment and case of this wall clock are lavishly decorated with paintings: the sides show an architectural illusion framing Minerva, goddess of arts and trade and Sapientia, the personification of wisdom. The two life-like, bearded faces move their lower jaws with every strike of the two large bells.
Early Renaissance-style iron bracket clocks with automata hardly ever appear at international auctions. Even in their time these clocks were immensely valuable and rare – only high-ranking members of the clergy and the aristocracy or very successful and wealthy merchants were able to afford this kind of clock, which explains why these clocks are rarely found outside museums.
A very similar model to this one - with an automaton where the two heads on the clock open their mouths and "catch a breath" on the strike of the hour – was part of the famous Joseph Fremersdorf Collection in Stuttgart.

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