A SINGLE-DIGITED TOWER CLOCK WITH WHEEL ROLLER... Lot 1015

A SINGLE-DIGITED TOWER CLOCK WITH WHEEL ROLLER AND ALARM Renaissance, Southern Germany, probably Augsburg, the movement dated 1634. Copper and bronze partly chased, engraved and punched as well as fire-gilded. Rectangular architecturally structured case on a profiled and stepped square base and squeeze feet. The corners of the case with three-quarter columns and composite capitals. Dome-shaped belfry with pierced balustrade, crowned by balusters. The corners also decorated with balusters. All sides engraved and punched with flowers, vines and volutes as well as scales. Front with silvered and partly enamelled dial, Roman hour numerals I - XII and Arabic 13 - 24. Alarm disc. The back with partly enamelled dial, decoration of leaf tendrils and bird of paradise, for setting the striking mechanism. Iron movement in pillar construction, verge escapement on wheel balance. Half hour striking movement on bell. Small alarm movement on bell. Worm wheel winding, the escapement with chain, the striking mechanism with string. In the dome later devices for locking the striking mechanism and the alarm clock. 16 x 16 x 32 cm. Possibly converted to a front pendulum in the meantime. In addition to the beautiful case with the chased, engraved and punched decoration, characteristic for the time around 1620, this clock also has a very finely worked movement, with square stands, the plate of the alarm movement cut with foliate decoration. The quality of the work indicates an origin in Augsburg. A turret clock with very similar decoration, but with different belfry, which is also described as an Augsburg work and dated around 1620, is illustrated at: Karl-Ernst Becker and Hatto Küffner, Battenberg Antiquitäten-Kataloge, Uhren, Munich 1978, p. 73, no. 19.