21,850 CHF
Oval Striking WatchGerman school, circa 1580, maker's mark M. S., possibly Martin Schmidt, Prague.Fine and very rare silver and gilt metal, oval, single hand two-train clock watch. Silver, outer 13 to 24 hour Roman chapter with half-hour divisions, quarter-hour ring inside and inner ring for 13 to 24 Arabic hours in the German style, centrence with champlevé enamel, engraved with a flower vase with a bird on top. Blued-steel hand. Notes The term 'Nürnberg egg'was coined in the eighteenth century, when it was assumed that the earliest German watches were of that shape. The assumption probably stemmed from a 1590 German translation of Rabelais' Gargantua-Pantagruel, where the word 'Ueurlein' (little clock) appeared as 'Eyrlein' (little egg) and from then on early oval watches were named 'Nürnberg eggs'.'Watches', G.H. Baillie, London, 1929, p.61.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2001-03-31
