- Museum number
- 1874,0718.24
- Description
-
CLOCK-WATCH MOVEMENT
Germany, ca. 1620 - 1630
:
Gilt-brass plates with turned baluster
pillars rivetted to the back-plate. Main-
springs housed in standing barrels. Brass
wheels, some of the going train missing.
Verge escapement with hog's bristle
regulation. Coiled steel stackfreed
spring (not original) without roller,
operating on a brass cam.
:
Striking train, for hours only, with nag's
head release (now missing), count-wheel
with pierced cover mounted on back-plate.
:
Original case and dial missing.
- Production date
- 1620-1630
- Dimensions
-
Length: 35 millimetres (movement)
-
Width: 27.30 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Comment from Hugh Tait, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum. Vol. I (1987)
Made by 'Hanns Buz' (signed); probably Augsburg, early 17th century
Hour-striking Watch Movement (case and bell lost)
Brass plates, urn-shaped pillars, brass wheels; later stack-freed spring in the form of a flat spiral terminating in a small leaf-shaped projection pressing on the cam; brass cam and wheel but the shape of the cam has been modified; the upper surface of the cam is engraved with scrolling foliage; the table of the balance-cock has been replaced with a curved arm; simple regulator. The brass count-wheel does not run in a sink but round a blued-steel disc riveted to the pillar-plate, the ring being held in place by a pierced gilt-metal cover. The pillar-plate is engraved in a confident manner: 'Hanns Buz'.
The bands for both mainsprings are engraved with scrolling foliage. The second-, third-, crown- and contrate-wheels in the going-train are missing. Fully developed potence, but the counter-potence has been replaced with a short pillar riveted to the underside of the pillar-plate, the crown-wheel pivot being held in the end of a transverse plug. The striking-train is conventional, except that the hammer is fitted below the dial. Latch for movement missing.
Dimensions (of movement): 35.0 x 27.3 mm.
Provenance: Lady Fellows Bequest, 1874.
Notes:
1. This movement is now contained in a gilt-metal oval case with a glazed cover of nineteenth-century origin. The band is made up from strip metal with a milled decoration (produced by rollers).
2. The dial-plate is also a modern replacement, crudely engraved with scrollwork. However, the applied gilt-metal dial is probably taken from a mid-seventeenth-century watch and has a finely engraved floral decoration in the central roundel within the chapter-ring, which is reminiscent of Vauquer's designs.
3. Because the hammer is fitted immediately below the dial, it may be assumed that the original case had a pierced dial-plate as in the Nicholas Rugendas watch (registration no. 1888,1201.166). But unlike the Rugendas watch, whose dial had no protective lid and which was designed to be screwed onto a metal stand, this watch by Buz is so small that it is more likely to have been designed for wearing on the person, and the reason for placing the bell immediately below the dial is that it originally had a rock-crystal case. This design may be seen in an example which has survived complete with its rock-crystal case and its pierced domed metal frame surrounding the dial, in the Renato Schubert Collection in Milan (see Luigi Pippa, 'Orologi nel Tempo', Milan, 1966, p. 102, 2 colour illus.; G. H. Baillie, 'Watches', London, 1929, p. 107, pl. XXI; Sotheby's Sale Catalogue of the Percy Webster Collection, 27 May 1954, no. 11). This example in the Schubert Collection is not signed, but the movement is engraved with the initials NR (perhaps for Nicholas Rugendas).
A second example of this type of watch was in the Prince Soltykoff Collection (see F. J. Britten, 'Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers', 3rd edn, London, 1911, p. 150, fig. 159). On this example, which is said to be signed by Conrad Kreizer, the dial is protected by an oval hinged cover of rock-crystal but is surrounded by the same type of pierced domed metal frame to let the sound of the bell under the dial escape freely. Another example with a rock-crystal case is in the Altes Schloss at Stuttgart (see 'Die Uhr', catalogue of an exhibition at the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, 1967, p. 140).
For a similar form of watch in the British Museum, but with a fusee movement, see the German (Augsburg), example signed 'Jerg Ernst A' (in Volume II of this Catalogue, reg. no. 1874,0718.42).
4. Two more similar examples are described and illustrated in Williamson 1912 (nos 5 and 72); one is signed 'Timothee hubert A. Roven'; the other is signed 'M. Girar à Bloye'. If these two examples are genuine, they provide evidence that this type of watch was also being made in France.
5. Nothing has been published about Hans Buz, but he may be the same maker who signed the fusee movement of an octagonal striking watch with calendar-work: 'Johannes Buz' (Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. 3236-1856, 92 x 64 mm); the original case and enamelled silver dial, which have both survived, indicate, on stylistic grounds, a date around 1600-30 and are of a type generally attributed to Augsburg workshops. Significantly, the case retains enough evidence to prove that it was originally designed to be screwed onto a metal stand, and so was not intended to be worn as a true 'watch'.
6. A further signed example of the work of Hans Buz of Augsburg is preserved in the Hapsburg Imperial collections in Vienna. It is within the bezel of a signet-ring and is signed 'Johan Buz A' (see p. 22 and p. 24, note 43).
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Latest: 3 (1993)
- Acquisition date
- 1874
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1874,0718.24