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Lot Essay
Mathias Razenhofer was Master of the Vienna Guild of Clockmakers in 1799 and died in 1839.
This clock daringly departs from the traditional designs of Viennese neoclassicism that prevailed in clock design in the early 19th century. Instead, the natural romantic imagery of the waterfall and rocky grotto specifically relate to the German Romantic movement of the same period.
Three other clocks with this type of movement by Razenhofer are recorded, including a sunflower clock, a vase of flowers, and a wheelbarrow full of flowers. Of these, Razenhofer's most celebrated work is his intricate Flower Clock depicting a vase of flowers. In both the Flower Clock and the present clock the mechanism is duplex escapement and grand sonnerie striking (on the quarter hour), and the bases to both clocks conceal a musical box movement. Most visibly, the time display on both clocks--starting and ending at six o'clock-- is similar and both with a fly-back mechanism (see H.A. Lloyd, Some Outstanding Clocks Over Seven Hundred Years 1250-1950, pp. 120-121, pl. 310 and 311.)
This clock daringly departs from the traditional designs of Viennese neoclassicism that prevailed in clock design in the early 19th century. Instead, the natural romantic imagery of the waterfall and rocky grotto specifically relate to the German Romantic movement of the same period.
Three other clocks with this type of movement by Razenhofer are recorded, including a sunflower clock, a vase of flowers, and a wheelbarrow full of flowers. Of these, Razenhofer's most celebrated work is his intricate Flower Clock depicting a vase of flowers. In both the Flower Clock and the present clock the mechanism is duplex escapement and grand sonnerie striking (on the quarter hour), and the bases to both clocks conceal a musical box movement. Most visibly, the time display on both clocks--starting and ending at six o'clock-- is similar and both with a fly-back mechanism (see H.A. Lloyd, Some Outstanding Clocks Over Seven Hundred Years 1250-1950, pp. 120-121, pl. 310 and 311.)