A GILT-BRASS QUARTER STRIKING ASTRONOMICAL MASTERPIECE CLOCK WITH ALARM, JOHANN PETER MAYR, AUGSBURG, CIRCA 1740, JOHANN PETER MAYR
Lot Closed
May 20, 12:24 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A GILT-BRASS QUARTER STRIKING ASTRONOMICAL MASTERPIECE CLO🐎CK WITH ALARM, JOHANN PET𒆙ER MAYR, AUGSBURG, CIRCA 1740, JOHANN PETER MAYR
• Movement: substantial posted movement with chain fusees to all three trains, verge escapement with short pendulum and silk suspension mounted in front of the time dial, the striking trains mounted to each side and with their own indication dials, striking and quarter striking on two bells, standing barrel for the alarm, both sides of the movement signed as the regulation dial, signed Johan Peter Mayr, Augspurg
• Dial: the front with 3-inch champlevé time dial I-XII twice, enclosing day and night indication and within a double-sided calendar ring engraved with the saint for each day of the year and associated dominical letter, subsidiary dials for the day of the week with associated deity and a zodiacal calendar with, at the centre, a further dial for setting the position of the sun in the zodiac, the small regulation dial above signed Johan Peter Mayr, Augspurg, the rear with an astrolabic dial&🦋nbsp;and subsidiaries for strike/silent, 12/24 hour striking, alarm and dominical letter indication
• Case: cube-form
With a modern perspex stand and cover
height 25cm
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Very little is known about Johann Peter Mayr but it is recorded that he became a master clockmaker in Augsburg in 1740 and obtaine🌜d his Freedom of the Guild on 10th July 1742. In order to gain admittance to the Augsburg Guild it was necessary to make a clock according to strict guidelines which had been laid down in 1558 and amended in ꦫ1577. The guidelines were still in force in the 18th century and, despite huge advances in clockmaking and changes in styles, remained virtually unaltered from the 16th century. The only later concession was for a pendulum to fitted but even this was not introduced until 1703, over forty years after its invention.
The present clock dates to circ🍨a 1740 and yet no clockmaker of the 18th century would have made such an old-fashioned clock except to gain admittance to the Guild and this must therefore be Johann Peter Mayr's masterpiece.
A very similar masterpiece clock by Johannes Braun was sold Sotheby's, London﷽, 19th December, 2000, Lot 301.
A further example in a fitted altar-form case is illustrated Maurice, Klaus Die Deutsche Raderuhr𒐪, Munich 1976, fig. 𝓀709