CHILD AND AGE CLOCK TEST, MEMENTO MORI OFFICE... Lot 13

CHILD AND AGE CLOCK TEST, MEMENTO MORI OFFICE Southern Germany or Austria Mid 17th century Hexagonal base in blackened wood with a gilded angel's head applied on each side, bearing a gilded dial at 24 o'clock with Roman numerals and divisions for the fifteen minutes from I to XII and Arabic numerals for 13 to 24, rosette in the centre, a single iron hand ; above the dial, an iron arm carries a baluster column made of turned and engraved wood, carved at the foot of a skull and surmounted by a gilded celestial globe, engraved with a zodiac with the signs represented by their symbols, the sun and the moon, and with a silvered hour scale with Roman numerals divided at thirty minutes, a child and an old man carved in natural wood flank the column ; hexagonal movement with iron and brass plates, rectangular iron pillars, two gear bodies, horizontal rod escapement and pendulum (old conversion), two gut-string rockets, rectangular hollow iron brake; the feet in the shape of gilt bronze vases (one missing); accidents and failures H. : 36.2 cm (14 ¼ in.) D. of the major axis: 22.5 cm (8 ¾ in.) A 'youth and age' clock, acting as a memento mori, South Germany or Austria, mid-17th century