- Museum number
- 1958,1006.2112
- Description
-
Horizontal table timepiece; spring-driven iron movement with verge escapement and balance; fusee; four-wheel train; internal cocks for wheels pass through pillars instead of over them; separate chapters for twelve and twenty-four hour systems; inner originally moveable.
- Production date
- 1555-1565
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 4.25 inches
- Curator's comments
- The following text is the entry for this object from the unpublished catalogue of pre-pendulum clocks by John Leopold, former Assistant Keeper of Horology at the Museum. This information is unedited and should be used accordingly.
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CYLINDRICAL HORIZONTAL CLOCK.
Czech (prob. Prague), middle of the 16th century.
Auction catalogue Christie's, London, 20th June 1939, lot 120.
NB: in the same sale CAI 2110, 2111, 2112, 2150, 2151, 2152.
Cat.Ilbert (1958) no.249.
Wayman (2000) 40-41 figs.3.21-22 (analysis of front plate, stopwork spring, great wheel)
SIGNATURE.
No mark or signature. The base has two inscriptions in ink: on the outside "Y E Np N=137"; on the inside "903." and the Ilbert-number "341Q"
DESCRIPTION.
Case and dial.
The case is made of brass, gilded on the outside only.
The band is constructed of sheet metal which was bent to the required shape and brazed at the join. The band is engraved with three roundels separated by a design of foliate tendrils. Two roundels contain the busts of a man and a woman, the third has a coat of arms. A profiled ring (bent from strip and brazed at the join) is riveted to the top of the band; a notch in this ring facilitates finding the 24-hours position. At the position of the spring barrel the band has been hammered (see Conversions).
The base, consisting of a plain disc brazed to a profiled ring (constructed like the other one), is friction-tight on the band of the case, and has two holes: one for the winding square, the other no longer in use (see below).
The dial consists of an outer ring and an inner disc. The ring is now fixed by means of three screws in the band of the case, which screw into brass blocks riveted to the underside of the ring. The ring has punched hour numerals 1-24 with punched half-hour marks (small flowers of six petals); the outer edge of the ring carries 24 touch-pieces, the one at 24 being larger than the others.
The inner disc has punched hour numerals 1-12 twice over, and no half-hour marks; its centre has an engraved sunburst. The disc is now fixed on top of the ring by means of four rivets.
The steel hand is not original.
Movement.
Constructed of steel except for the barrel-band, which is of brass.
Plated movement with skeletonized back plate; three rectangular pillars with chamfered sides, rivited to the back plate and pinned under the dial. The front plate, dial side, has around the edge a ring of 24 punched blind holes. All pivot holes now bushed in brass, except the holes for the barrel.
All arbors are pivoted in the front plate but only the barrel and the great-wheel are pivoted in the back plate. The second wheel and the lower verge pivot run in arms pinned to the pillar on the barrel-side; the contrate runs in one end of a double arm pinned to the pillar on the fusee-side, the other end of which carries the 'scape wheel. There is no conventional potance; the counter-potance is pinned to the back plate.
Going train only. Train count:
4 | 54 48 36
── | ── ── ── 11 (x 2).
24-hour ← 48 | 6 6 6
Spring barrel: brass band and steel caps, the back cap riveted over three, the front one over four, irregularly spaced studs. Spring: original, not blued and rather irregular: 24.5-25.5 x .3-.45 mm. The spring has a crack and a large portion has been filed away to prevent another crack from spreading. Spring now hooked over a stud on the arbor, but the slanted slot of the original hooking is still present. The outside of the spring is hooked into the wall by a rectangular steel hook. The ratchet wheel for the set-up has 14 teeth. Conventional stopwork.
Fusee of 12½ turns, cut for gut; 23 ratchet teeth for winding. Split fusee, the great wheel arbor having a lantern pinion of 4 to drive the dial wheel.
The second wheel has all teeth marked (on the side toward the plate).
Contrate wheel: arbor facetted in six.
The wheel-balance and its arbour, as well as the table of the cock, are later. The cock is pinned throught the plate with two pins.
All train wheels have four crossings and the inside of the bands are champhered.
The movement is secured in the case by a brass screw in one of the pillars; there is no guiding-ridge to position the movement inside the case.
CONVERSIONS.
The replaced table of the cock and the new balance strongly suggest that the clock has been converted to balance spring. Moreover, the hammered portion of the case shows that at one time the clock had a chain. Otherwise the conversion has left remarkably little trace.
PERFORMANCE.
Great wheel: 1 rev. per hour.
Escapement: 9504 beats per hour.
Duration: 25 hours.
MEASUREMENTS.
Case: diameter - 107 mm
height - 71 mm
Movement: diameter - 95 mm
distance between plates - 42 mm.
HISTORY AND PROVENANCE.
Collection Mrs.Ida Netter, sold at Christie's, London, 20 June 1939, lot 120, described as: "A German Table Clock, in circular metal-gilt case, the body engraved with medallion portraits and interlacing floral foliage - 4 1/4 in. diam.". It was sold, together with CAI 2152, for £ 5/15/6 to "Gardiner" (clearly Malcolm Gardner).
Ilbert collection. Ilbert's ledger, no.341 Q, gives as provenance the Christie sale, so presumably Gardner bid on Ilbert's behalf.
Presented by Mr.Gilbert Edgar C.B.E. in 1958; reg.no. CAI-2112.
COMMENTARY.
The arms on the case of the clock can be identified as those of the Kunovice family, a noble family of Moravian origin. By the 16th century they owned large holdings both in Moravia and Bohemia, and were important supporters of the Moravian Bretheren. In 1686 they were created Counts. The arms are variously described. Siebmacher (Mährische Adel, 65) gives them as Gules, a bend azure and in chief two demi harts or; crest: a demi hart or. According to Chr.Pfeiffer, Paprotzkius enucleatus (1730) 104-105 they are Azure, two demi harts proper; crest: out of a coronet a demi hart. However, the arms are sufficiently distinctive to leave no doubt as to their identification.
The source of the ornamentation of the case has not been identified, but the foliate ornaments probably derive from a Nuremberg design; they are close to prints by Gilg Kilian Proger (worked ca.1530-40).
The functions of the mutilated dial of the clock become clear on comparing it with several others of the type. Most clocks with such dials are unsigned, but one of them, dated 1550, is signed by Hans Steinmeissel of Prague (Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart; illustrated Himmelein [1973] fig.4). All these dials have a fixed outer ring and a friction-tight, manually adjustable inner ring or disc, and the scales are usually rather crudely marked with arabic numerals. These double scales are meant to tell the time according to the "kleine Uhr" 1-12 from midday to midnight and from midnight to midday, as well as according to the Bohemian Hours (= Italian Hours) 1-24 from sunset to sunset. As the moment of sunset varies in the course of the year one of the scales had to be periodically adjusted (see appendix I). In the B.M.-clock the inner disc of the dial should actually be situated under the outer ring, being held in position by an underlying disc; this disc is now missing. There were two holes in the inner disc for inserting a pointed implement to facilitate adjusting; these holes have since been filled. The outer ring was originally held in the case by simple friction (compare cat.nr. ).
The use of arabic numerals to indicate the hours (particularly for the Bohemian scale) appears to have been wide-spread in Czech clockmaking: such 24-hour scales appear on two clocks by Jakob Zech of Prague (dated 1525, Society of Antiquaries, London; and dated 1528, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin). It may be noted that the Bohemian Hours on the great clock of the Town Hall in Prague are also marked in arabic numerals.
The movement of the Steinmeissel clock is not unlike that of the B.M.-clock, but there is a much greater similarity with three other cylindrical clocks. These are: a clock in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, the case engraved with the arms of Thun-Aschenstein, Khuen-Belasy and Ortenburg (all Bohemian families) 1); the second one in the Nationaal Goud-, Zilver- en Klokkenmuseum, Schoonhoven 2); and a third one dated 1544 and signed "Hans Gaysler zu Krokav" 3), in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin . These three clocks not only have dials, but also movements that are very similar to that of the B.M.-clock, and they are somewhat different from the norm in such clocks. These characteristics are: unusual piercing of the back plate, movement pillars pinned on the dial-side, arms for holding the wheels pinned through the pillars (rather than mounted on rings that pass over the pillars, compare cat.nrs. ), a counter-potance pinned to the plate, brass wall for the spring barrel, facetted arbor for the contrate wheel, and the movement secured in the case by a screw. The Vienna clock, moreover, has the identical train count; the Schoonhoven one has a contrate wheel of 42 but the train is otherwise identical (the scape wheel of this clock has been replaced [15 teeth]). - Another similar clock, dated 1566, of which the movement has not been insprected, is in the Kremlin, Moscow (Treasures [1997] 28).
The near-central hole in the base was probably cut in order to accomodate a higher cock when the movement was converted to balance spring (the movement has since been restored to the original construction).
Near the escutcheon the band of the case has been lightly hammered out, showing that at some time a chain was fitted to the barrel.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Auction catalogue Christie's, London, 20th June 1939, lot 120.
Cat.Ilbert (1958) no.249.
Wayman (2000) 40-41 (analysis of front plate, stopwork spring, great wheel).
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1) Unpublished; inv.9868.
2) Kummer (1991) 25-6.
3) Maurice (1976) fig.489; Hausmann (1979) no.51. Both authors read the abbreviated place name as Kronau (variously identified), corrected in Exhib.Cat. "Polen im Zeitalter der Jagelonen 1386-1572", Schallaburg 1989, no.195, according to which Hans Gaysler worked in Krakow from 1536 and died there 1567-9. This catalogue illustrates an empty case of a clock by Gaysler engraved with the initials and arms of King Sigismund Augustus Jagello of Poland, who ruled 1548-72 (National Museum, Krakow). The dials of the two Gaysler-clocks are similar to the present ones, but the rings for 2x 12 hours are marked with roman numerals.
Depth of barrel: 27.5 mm.
Check: do the other clocks have steel barrels, and how are the springs attached?
Do Vienna and Berlin have facetted arbors for the contrate?
BM has Bohemian hours as fixed outer ring; Schoonhoven has them as the inner moveable one. How is Vienna organized, and should all this be mentioned?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY (Pauline Wholey – 2019)
Ilbert (1958) Auction cat. coll. Courtenay A. Ilbert, London, Christie, 6 7 November 1958.
Wayman (2000) - M.L.Wayman ed., The ferrous Metallurgy of early Clocks and Watches - Studies in post medieval Steel, British Museum, Occasional Paper 135 (London 2000). Contributers: P.T.Craddock, J.L.Evans, J.Lang, J.H.Leopold, M.L.Wayman.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Latest: 3 (Aug 2015)
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Acquisition notes
- This clock was formerly part of the collection of Otto Koch. His 161 watches and clocks were sold at Christie's London Auction House, 20th June 1939 - 'the property of a Lady'. Otto Koch, who died in 1919, had been a partner in the jewellery firm of Robert Koch in Frankfurt, founded by his father Robert Koch in 1879. Robert Koch died in 1902. After Robert’s death the firm was continued by Louis, his younger brother. Otto's widow, Ida, married again in 1930, Emil Netter, who died in 1936. In 1938 the firm was “aryanized” and ‘sold‘ to Robert Bosch at which point the assets were frozen. In the late 1930s Ida Netter managed to flee from Germany, secretly taking the collection of watches and clocks with her, first to Holland, then to England where they sold at Christie’s. Ida Netter died in Washington DC in 1981 (Information supplied by Eric Koch, the grandson of Otto Koch; for information about the sale and the fourteen clocks and watches from the collection acquired by the BM in 1958, see Spoliation Advisory Panel Report published March, 2012 )
The Ilbert Collection of clocks, prints and other related material was destined to be sold at Christie's auction house on 6th-7th November 1958. As a result of the generous donation of funds by Gilbert Edgar CBE the sale was cancelled and the material purchased privately from the beneficiaries of the Ilbert Estate.
Ilbert's watches were then acquired with further funds from Gilbert Edgar CBE, public donations and government funds. These were then registered in the series 1958,1201.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1958,1006.2112
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: CAI.2112 (Ilbert Collection)
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: Q341 (Ilbert Ledger)