Details
A GERMAN GILT-BRASS STRIKING AND ASTRONOMICAL TABLE CLOCK
AUGSBURG, CIRCA 1560-70
The drum case with strapwork and pierced borders, the latched base on pomegranate feet; the MASTER DIAL showing: mean time indicated by the steel hour hand to twelve hours and touch pieces to the outer ring, solar time indicated by hand with stylised sun and engraved 'SOL' to twenty-four hour ring, Nurnberg hours indicated by a pair of hands and engraved 'OC NOR' (for occasus Norimbergia - the end of the Nurnberg day) and 'OR DIES' (for ortus dies or ora dies), hours of the moon indicated by a pair of hands engraved 'OCCIDENS' (for West) and 'ORIENS' (for East), Zodiac band, date band and central astrology chart with moon-orb to show phases; the UNDERSIDE COVER showing: a 'de Rois type' astrolabe dial and smaller dial stippled as 'light' and 'dark' and engraved 'OC', 'OR', 'NOR' and 'DIS', stamped with Augsburg pinecone flanked by an unidentified makers mark struck twice; the UNDER-DIAL with: Nurnberg hour setting dials for both sun and moon each furnishing motion to the pair of hands on the Master dial, intermediate wheels covered by engraved panels to the centre, two pointers and squares for shutting off the striking; the posted steel framed MOVEMENT with chain fusee to the going train, verge escapement, brass balance wheel with balance spring, standing barrel to the strike train, fly and countwheel strike to bell, standing barrel to the quarters train, fly and countwheel to bell
3 ¾ in. (9.5 cm.) high, 6 ¾ in. (17 cm.) diameter
Provenance
Edward Julius Berwind (1848-1936), The Elms, Newport, Rhode Island.
Edward J. Berwind Collection, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 9-11 November 1939.
Probably with Simpson Bros., New York.
William B. Miller, San Diego CA., from 1939.
Edward S. Jones Collection, Los Angeles, CA., from 1961.
Dr. Peter Guggenheim from 1968.
Literature
E.S. Jones, P. Guggenheim, 'A Sixteenth Century Table Clock', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. VI, June 1970, pp. 433-436.
C. Vincent, Northern European Clocks in New York Collections, New York, 1972, p. 17.
K. Maurice, Die deutsche Räderuhr, Band II, Munich, 1976, p. 68, figs. 519 a,b,c.
K. Maurice and O. Mayr (eds.), The Clockwork Universe, German Clocks and Automata 1550-1650, Munich, 1980, p. 207, No. 41.
Exhibited
Northern European Clocks in New York Collections, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 4 January – 28 March 1972, inv. no. 13.
The Clockwork Universe, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich and National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution), Washington, 1980/81, cat. no. 41.
Dürer, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 4 March to 3 April 1991.
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