RARE table clock in bronze or engraved brass, gilt or silver - Lot 314

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  3. RARE table clock in bronze or engraved brass, gilt or silver - Lot 314
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Lot n° 314
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Estimation :
60000 - 70000 EUR
RARE table clock in bronze or engraved brass, gilt or silver - Lot 314
RARE table clock in bronze or engraved brass, gilt or silvered; the dial with amati background, signed "Michel Schultz Sedan" in a set of foliage, is set in a hexagonal moulded case and indicates the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in Arabic numerals; the sides with windows framed by a silvered frieze reveal the finely engraved mechanism; the blued steel elements; the underside has three stamps and opens to reveal the plate also signed as well as the hammers and winding squares; small turned feet; the cock signed "Dan Treuhorm". Mid 17th century H : 10 - W : 18 cm (some modifications and logical restorations to the mechanism). This type of clocks, commonly called "table clocks", seems to make its appearance in the Germanic countries in the first years of the 17th century and will be declined throughout the century by some of the best clockmakers of the time. Following in parallel and adapting to the main horological innovations of the time, the most successful models, most often with a hexagonal composition, are distinguished by the exceptional quality of their casework and above all by the perfection of their mechanisms with pierced, engraved and finely worked elements; sometimes, as on the example we are proposing, they strike the hours, half-hours and quarters, a testimony to the perfect technical mastery of the watchmaker who made the model in the middle of the 17th century: Michael Schultze, a craftsman active in Danzig, who Frenchified his name to "Michel Schultz" during his period of French activity located in Sedan. Today, among the rare clocks known to have been made in the same spirit, let us mention in particular: an early model by Johann Georg Bluemcken which is illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition Gehäuse der Zeit, Museum Schloss Fasanerie, Fulda, p.28-29, catalogue n°5; as well as a second one kept at the Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse (reproduced in M. Hayard, Fondation Bemberg, Objets de mesure du Temps, Hôtel d'Assézat, Toulouse, 2015, p.64-65); and a third one which belongs to the collections of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (published in the catalogue of the exhibition Clockmaking, Perfect Timing. Sixteenth and Seventeenth century Clocks and Watches in the Hermitage Collection, St Petersburg, 2016, p.115). Finally, it should be noted that a copy by Michael Schultze, made in Danzig around 1640, housed in a much less elaborate hexagonal case and equipped with an equally less accomplished movement, was formerly in the collection of Courtenay Adrian Ilbert and was bequeathed in 1958 by Gilbert Edgar to the British Museum in London (Inv.1958/1006/1962).
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