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XII.32 Clock with see-through case
Maker: unknown
Place:Central Italy
Date:early 18th cent.
Materials:brass; box: wood
Dimensions:height 2500 mm
Current inventory:3572
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Green-lacquered wooden case with friezes and grotesques. The front bears a crowned shield representing a plant, a star, and the profile of a black face with a white band on the forehead. The brass dial is overlaid with an hour circle. The hours are engraved from I to VI in Roman numerals, the half-hours represented by a lily, and the minute ring shows Arabic five-minute numerals. The hands are old but perhaps not original. The hour hand shows a lily in bloom. The center is engraved with an ornamental windrose. The brass movement is enclosed by upper and lower plates and slender angle pillars with elaborate feet and finials. The two trains, one behind the other, are driven by weights, ropes, and pulleys with deep spiked grooves. Winding is by counterweight. The verge escapement has a horizontal contrate wheel and a pendulum integral with the verge. The chime is controlled by a mechanism sometimes defined as an organ-pipe arrangement, with pegs of decreasing length placed on the wheel that raises the hammers. These are controlled by shafts sliding automatically on the horizontal plane. The two bells of different diameter are located above the upper plate. A typical Italian clock in original condition.

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