Lot 69
An important early gilt brass hour striking table clock with 24-hour dial, day / night indication, and alarm, the side panels with finely engraved images of the saints Christopher, Paul and Simon the Zealot, after Albrecht Durer Hans Steinmeissel, Prague, dated 1551
6 December 2018, 13:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$31,250 inc. premium
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An important early gilt brass hour striking table clock with 24-hour dial, day / night indication, and alarm, the side panels with finely engraved images of the saints Christopher, Paul and Simon the Zealot, after Albrecht Durer
Hans Steinmeissel, Prague, dated 1551
The rectangular case surmounted by a bell with turned finial flanked by smaller square baluster finials to the corners, signed "Hans Stein Meissel Urmacher zu Prach Domini 1551 jar" under the bell, dial plate engraved with scrolling foliage on striated ground, applied molded dial with concentric roman I-XII / I-XII and 1-24 arabic chapter rings enclosing alarm setting disc, a dark / light sphere above the bezel for night / day indication, the side and back panels finely engraved with portraits of Saint Paul, Saint Christopher and Saint Simon the Zealot after Durer, all raised on foliate engraved plinth with molded convex base, iron posted frame movement with faceted pillars, iron trains with twin wood fusees, the spring barrels pivoted below the base plate, verge escapement with two arm poised balance, count wheel striking by vertically pivoted hammer, separately wound alarm on a shaped plate mounted on the side of the frame
The rectangular case surmounted by a bell with turned finial flanked by smaller square baluster finials to the corners, signed "Hans Stein Meissel Urmacher zu Prach Domini 1551 jar" under the bell, dial plate engraved with scrolling foliage on striated ground, applied molded dial with concentric roman I-XII / I-XII and 1-24 arabic chapter rings enclosing alarm setting disc, a dark / light sphere above the bezel for night / day indication, the side and back panels finely engraved with portraits of Saint Paul, Saint Christopher and Saint Simon the Zealot after Durer, all raised on foliate engraved plinth with molded convex base, iron posted frame movement with faceted pillars, iron trains with twin wood fusees, the spring barrels pivoted below the base plate, verge escapement with two arm poised balance, count wheel striking by vertically pivoted hammer, separately wound alarm on a shaped plate mounted on the side of the frame
Footnotes
Hans Steinmeissel (d. 1572) was associated with the eminent Prague clockmaker, Jakob Zech (d. 1540) in whose shop he presumably trained and served as a journeyman. Zech's astronomical table clock of 1525, made for Sigismund I, King of Poland, now in the British Museum, is the oldest dated fusee timepiece. A respected maker, Zech was royal court watchmaker to Queen Anne of Bohemia and Hungary and was also responsible for the maintenance of the Prague Astronomical Clock. Steinmeissel succeeded Zech and married his daughter, Mariana in 1548. He died in 1572 leaving a widow and five children. His estate included: 27 pounds of tin, 27 steel and iron rods, a bellows, an anvil, three large hammers, and other tools.
Another clock by Steinmeissel, virtually identical except for the engraved figures around the sides of the case, dated 1549, is in the collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.
Literature:
Hodiny A Hodinky: Clocks and Watches in the Collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (2005)
Maurice, Klaus. Die deutsche Räderuhr. (1976)
