108th Auction

2023/5/20

Lot 303

Monogrammist MN

A Southern-German, one-handed Renaissance table clock of museum-quality, with hour strike

estimated
15.00018.000 €
Price realized
-
specific features
Case
Bronze, firegilt, engraved and openworked, later base plate.
Dial
Bronze, firegilt, engraved Roman and Arabic hours and half hour divisions, applied hour knobs for time reading by night, engraved centre depicting birds of prey and flowers, spandrels with four engraved cherub heads, single iron hand.
Movement
Full plate movement, brass and iron, maker's mark: "MN" within a shield, 2 barrels for going train and hour strike, 1 hammer / 1 bell, verge escepament, locking plate, formerly with stackfreed, foliot.
Diam.116 x 116 x 73 mm
Circa1580
Ctry.Germany
Wt.1800 g


The visible parts show the four evangelists Luke, Mark, Matthew and John writing their Gospels. They are accompanied by their evangelist symbols. With the exception of John, they are all seated at tables in the midst of spacious interiors; various views of different cities can be seen in the background. The walls have been fitted with round-arched windows, to reinforce the sound of the striking mechanism. John, the youngest of the four evengelists, sits on a riverbank with a scroll in his hand.
The watchmaker's mark "MN" in a shield is punched on the firegilt plate. Unfortunately it cannot be assigned to any watchmaker. There is also no reference in the literature. In our last, 107th auction, we had a South German Renaissance pendant watch with alarm and stackfreed (lot 86), also hallmarked "MN".
There are almost no horizontal table clocks with fixed barrels documented in the literature, especially not from the Renaissance period. Only in the reference book "Die deutsche Räderuhr" by Klaus Maurice is a comparable clock described and illustrated.
According to the comprehensive restoration report by restorer Jürgen Ehrt, the clock should not be wound. He remarks: "In future, no attempt should be made to wind the movements in order to set the clock in motion for the purpose of demonstration. The frictional resistance created by doing so carries a high risk, meaning that damage to the movement mechanics cannot be ruled out. In view of the fact that this is a technology and material combination that is more than 400 years old and subject to the technical imponderabilia of material fatigue, the undersigned restorer declines all responsibility and liability for damage resulting from commissioning!
If, however, a commissioning should be undertaken in the future at one's own risk and responsibility, the following should be taken into account without fail:
Only wind the mainsprings with max. 2 to 3 turns!"