108th Auction
2023/5/20
Lot 312
Meistermarke "M" mit drei Punkten
A very interesting and true to the original reproduction of the portable, drum-shaped, single hand Renaissance clock watch dating from the 16th century; the original was part of the famous Lord Sandberg Collection sold by Antiquorum as Lot 64 in 2001 for 82.700 CHF
Sold
The sides of the two-part, cylindrical case is engraved with strapwok and foliage. The base shows an engraving of a geometric pattern on the rim, in the centre there is the portrait of a man's bust crowned with a helmet and a kind of laurel wreath and the inscription "IVLIVS".
This lot imitates to the last detail a single-hand Renaissance clock-watch dating from circa 1550 in the Lord Sandberg Collection and is a more recent commissioned reproduction. It does not only represent the skills of the anonymous maker but also shows how difficult it is to identify imitations dating from the period of Peter Henlein.
Even in the era of historicism where the popularity of all things vintage, in particular Middle-age and Renaissance style objects was at its peak, a large number of copies, replicas and forgeries were produced and sold due to the large gap between supply and demand. This was enabled by clever traders, who bought old warehouse stocks from various watch- and clockmakers and had the parts put together to be sold as timepieces from that original period. The makers imitated the models seen on paintings of important persons from the period who wore the first portable clock-watches as status or vanity pieces while they posed for their portraits.
The most famous copy of a Renaissance clock-watch is probably the piece acquired by important collector Carl Marfels around 1890, which he bought with the designation "earliest pocket watch ever" and which was eventually acquired by the wealthy financier and banker John Pierpont Morgan. Much later it was discovered that the piece was an amalgamation created with a case dating from 1550/60 and a much later movement dating from 1680. Today that piece is kept in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.