100th Auction
2019/11/15
Lot 85
Bohemian, 560 x 380,5 x 250,5 mm, circa 1620
A Bohemian table clock of museum-like quality with quarter hour strike, crossbeat escapement and remontoir in the manner of Jost Burgi - Unique Masterpiece
Case: The gilt-brass case has four panels flanked by cast and turned pillars on integral plinths and is engraved with masks and scrolls. The left panel of the case has a glazed aperture and is engraved with putti, scroll borders and a cherub leaning on an hourglass within a cartouche above a silver quarter-hour dial. The right panel also has a glazed aperture and is engraved with scroll borders, putti and a cherub blowing bubbles within a cartouche, above a silver hourstrike dial; the whole is raised on a moulded base with winged-claw feet and surmounted by an architectural cresting with turned finials within a baluster gallery rail.
Dial: The front panel is bordered with shaped glazed apertures to view the crossbeat escapement action, there is a remontoir state of wind disk with fine blued steel pointer to the left. The whole is finely engraved with architectural scrolls, two putti holding aloft swags, a putto with a scythe and a putto with an oar. In the middle is a plain hammered-silver dial with an engraved chapter ring l-XII twice and half-hour star markings, the outer gilt brass ring engraved with the four quarters l-llll and five-minute divisions with Arabic numerals. The blued-steel hour and minute hands have counter-balance tails. The upper portion of the back panel is engraved with similar decoration and centred by a silver dial, finely engraved with a direct south-facing vertical sundial for an approximate latitude of 50° (Prague). The architectural scroll border is centred at the base with a mask within a cartouche and above with the sun, the furniture consisting of hour lines VI-VI anticlockwise, lines of declination, signs of the Zodiac and Bohemian hour lines, with an engraved and hinged gnomon, a silver dial below engraved with concentric rings and Arabic numerals 1-8 regulation of time, flanked by engraved allegorical figures of the sun seated on a lion and the moon on a dolphin.
Movm.: The posted frame has steel corner posts and four gilt-brass plates supporting the barrel and going train. A gut line is attached to a pulley running over a further pulley, mounted on the back corner post, to the large spring barrel. The setting up is realised by an intermediate winding wheel mounted on an arbor wound through the front dial plate. A second line runs from the maintaining pulley to one of two fixed pulleys on an extended arbor carrying the state of remontoir wind disc. The second pulley has a line running to a grooved lever activated by the quarter striking thus effecting the remontoir rewind; the 21.5 cm diameter steel escape wheel with 6 crossings and 180 finely cut teeth is driven by a short steel train of two pinions and wheels mounted between a large bridge and the front plate. The motion work has a quarter star wheel mounted on the front plate; the cross-beat foliots geared together and pivoted between the front plate and a further scalloped plate mounted with a depthing carriage for the escapement, fine adjustment by means of a cam and spring. The front plate has two arched inspection apertures, whilst the cross-beat levers have adjustable crisply cast, chased and gilded winged-cherub heads. The quarter and hour striking trains are latched to the base, both trains with chain fusees, barrels with pinned caps, outside ratchet wheels, steel wheels and pinions of a particularly fine tooth form and front winding through a pierced copper dust cover. The quarter-striking countwheel carries four sets of three pins engaging a scalloped lever thus rewinding the remontoir spring. There is additional gearing showing the last quarter struck on the left-side dial, a pivoted lever releasing the hour striking train with similar gearing to show the last hour struck on the right-side dial. Duration 2 days.
There are four similar clocks known; two in Kassel, one in Dresden and one in Copenhagen. Clocks are one of the most important inventions of the Renaissance period. This clock is one of the rarest examples of Germanic clockmaking to appear on the market for many years. And although unsigned utilises two of the inventions of Jost Burgi (1552-1632), namely the cross beat escapement and the remontoire, both of which contributed to the development of accurate timekeeping. In 1604 Burgi was appointed Imperial Clockmaker to Emperor Rudolph II in Prague and was foremost among the clock and globe makers of the time. He was known to have made a number of experimental docks with similar movements, all of which were unsigned, see H. Alan Lloyd Same Outstanding Clocks Over Seven Hun dred Years 1250-1950, chapter VIII page 61 and plates 66 to 72. The small number of cross beat clocks that exist are mostly contained in unadorned cases, suggesting they were made for practical astronomical calculations. By contrast, this clock is housed in a highly finished case and can be assumed to have been commissioned for a noble client. A clear indication that the clock was made for use in Prague is shown by the superbly engraved direct south facing sundial on the back of the clock designed for that latitude.
Literature
H. Alan Lloyd, "Some outstanding clocks over seven hundred years 1250-1950", p. 64, plate 65-72.
Klaus Maurice, "Die Deutsche Räderuhr", vol. II, p. 81, plate 635 - 637.
Klaus Maurice, "The Clockwork Universe", p. 76, 220-221. 226-227.
A. E. Seemann, "Kostbare Instrumente und Uhren", p. 124-125.
A Bohemian table clock of museum-like quality with quarter hour strike, crossbeat escapement and remontoir in the manner of Jost Burgi - Unique Masterpiece
Case: The gilt-brass case has four panels flanked by cast and turned pillars on integral plinths and is engraved with masks and scrolls. The left panel of the case has a glazed aperture and is engraved with putti, scroll borders and a cherub leaning on an hourglass within a cartouche above a silver quarter-hour dial. The right panel also has a glazed aperture and is engraved with scroll borders, putti and a cherub blowing bubbles within a cartouche, above a silver hourstrike dial; the whole is raised on a moulded base with winged-claw feet and surmounted by an architectural cresting with turned finials within a baluster gallery rail.
Dial: The front panel is bordered with shaped glazed apertures to view the crossbeat escapement action, there is a remontoir state of wind disk with fine blued steel pointer to the left. The whole is finely engraved with architectural scrolls, two putti holding aloft swags, a putto with a scythe and a putto with an oar. In the middle is a plain hammered-silver dial with an engraved chapter ring l-XII twice and half-hour star markings, the outer gilt brass ring engraved with the four quarters l-llll and five-minute divisions with Arabic numerals. The blued-steel hour and minute hands have counter-balance tails. The upper portion of the back panel is engraved with similar decoration and centred by a silver dial, finely engraved with a direct south-facing vertical sundial for an approximate latitude of 50° (Prague). The architectural scroll border is centred at the base with a mask within a cartouche and above with the sun, the furniture consisting of hour lines VI-VI anticlockwise, lines of declination, signs of the Zodiac and Bohemian hour lines, with an engraved and hinged gnomon, a silver dial below engraved with concentric rings and Arabic numerals 1-8 regulation of time, flanked by engraved allegorical figures of the sun seated on a lion and the moon on a dolphin.
Movm.: The posted frame has steel corner posts and four gilt-brass plates supporting the barrel and going train. A gut line is attached to a pulley running over a further pulley, mounted on the back corner post, to the large spring barrel. The setting up is realised by an intermediate winding wheel mounted on an arbor wound through the front dial plate. A second line runs from the maintaining pulley to one of two fixed pulleys on an extended arbor carrying the state of remontoir wind disc. The second pulley has a line running to a grooved lever activated by the quarter striking thus effecting the remontoir rewind; the 21.5 cm diameter steel escape wheel with 6 crossings and 180 finely cut teeth is driven by a short steel train of two pinions and wheels mounted between a large bridge and the front plate. The motion work has a quarter star wheel mounted on the front plate; the cross-beat foliots geared together and pivoted between the front plate and a further scalloped plate mounted with a depthing carriage for the escapement, fine adjustment by means of a cam and spring. The front plate has two arched inspection apertures, whilst the cross-beat levers have adjustable crisply cast, chased and gilded winged-cherub heads. The quarter and hour striking trains are latched to the base, both trains with chain fusees, barrels with pinned caps, outside ratchet wheels, steel wheels and pinions of a particularly fine tooth form and front winding through a pierced copper dust cover. The quarter-striking countwheel carries four sets of three pins engaging a scalloped lever thus rewinding the remontoir spring. There is additional gearing showing the last quarter struck on the left-side dial, a pivoted lever releasing the hour striking train with similar gearing to show the last hour struck on the right-side dial. Duration 2 days.
There are four similar clocks known; two in Kassel, one in Dresden and one in Copenhagen. Clocks are one of the most important inventions of the Renaissance period. This clock is one of the rarest examples of Germanic clockmaking to appear on the market for many years. And although unsigned utilises two of the inventions of Jost Burgi (1552-1632), namely the cross beat escapement and the remontoire, both of which contributed to the development of accurate timekeeping. In 1604 Burgi was appointed Imperial Clockmaker to Emperor Rudolph II in Prague and was foremost among the clock and globe makers of the time. He was known to have made a number of experimental docks with similar movements, all of which were unsigned, see H. Alan Lloyd Same Outstanding Clocks Over Seven Hun dred Years 1250-1950, chapter VIII page 61 and plates 66 to 72. The small number of cross beat clocks that exist are mostly contained in unadorned cases, suggesting they were made for practical astronomical calculations. By contrast, this clock is housed in a highly finished case and can be assumed to have been commissioned for a noble client. A clear indication that the clock was made for use in Prague is shown by the superbly engraved direct south facing sundial on the back of the clock designed for that latitude.
Literature
H. Alan Lloyd, "Some outstanding clocks over seven hundred years 1250-1950", p. 64, plate 65-72.
Klaus Maurice, "Die Deutsche Räderuhr", vol. II, p. 81, plate 635 - 637.
Klaus Maurice, "The Clockwork Universe", p. 76, 220-221. 226-227.
A. E. Seemann, "Kostbare Instrumente und Uhren", p. 124-125.
Sold
estimated
220.000—300.000 €
Price realized
225.000 €