A German organ clock “Prunkuhr”, Augsburg, circa 1725

A German organ clock “Prunkuhr”, Augsburg, circa 1725

turtleshell, porcelain and ormolu-mounted, with mother-of-pearl, horn and brass inlay, 6¼-inch dial with silver trellis spandrels, matted centre with mock pendulum aperture now signed Melchior Balthazar A Paris, an inlaid portrait in the arch, the associated movement with later Brocot suspension, numbered outside count wheel striking on a bell, signed on the backplate as the dial, a lever operating at the hour to activate an associated ten pipe organ (one pipe now lacking), driven by a large fusee movement to a pinned 9½in. wooden barrel and playing a series of short airs, the three-tier case surmounted by an angel above a porcelain plaque depicting an abbess, centred on the arch of an open-fronted mirror-backed loggia supported on chinoiserie-decorated porcelain pillars and containing a gilt figure of Mars with Cupid, the central tier containing the clock and with conforming pillars, the sides inlaid with portrait roundels in coloured mother-of-pearl, the lower tier containing the organ movement and lavishly inlaid with Chinoiserie figures and European profile portraits, the central panel flanked by silver figures, the whole with pierced silver mounts, on hairy paw feet

Height 31½ in.; Width 19¾ in.; Depth 10¼ in.; 80 cm; 50 cm; 26 cm

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Pendule "Prunkuhr", Allemagne, Augsburg, vers 1725

en écaille de tortue, bronze doré et porcelaine

Height 31½ in.; Width 19¾ in.; Depth 10¼ in.; 80 cm; 50 cm; 26 cm