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A large and impressive 19th century Black Forest musical and automata organ clock image 1
A large and impressive 19th century Black Forest musical and automata organ clock image 2
Lot 34W

A large and impressive 19th century Black Forest musical and automata organ clock

15 December 2009, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£5,000 - £6,000

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A large and impressive 19th century Black Forest musical and automata organ clock

The case with overhanging cornice over a large door with painted glass upper-scalloped top flanked by canted front angles to a tall veneered base, the 20 inch-wide painted rectangular wooden dial with theatrical aperture (originally revealing four automata figures, but figures are lacking) over a gilt-heightened scene of George and the Dragon amid painted sprays of wild flowers, wheat sheaves , grapes and a roaring fire, all emblematic of the good things in life, the raised circular dial with Roman hours and Arabic quarter hour marks enclosing a pair of matching brass hands, the clock movement comprising a pair of wooden plates united by four turned pillars, with lantern pinions and anchor escapement with an outside countwheel striking on a bell mounted on the lower plate of the large organ movement. The organ movement comprising a wooden box-like structure of top, bottom and two side plates housing the pinned wooden barrel with sprung inner barrel providing a constant force, 7 inches in diameter and 16.25 inches in length activating a series of 24 steel-tipped wooden pipes behind ranging in size from 1.5inch to 23.5inch (the latter made in two sections and set horizontally across the top-plate; further mounted across the length of the barrel is a series of inter-connected wire rods to actuate the figures most likely originally carved musicians that swayed in time to the tunes.
The small left hand door carries a handwritten note in German detailing the section of tunes, indistinctly signed Jacob Gantner yus Chappel 2.77m (9ft 1ins) high

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