The Private Collection of Theodor Beyer

Hotel Baur Au Lac, Zurich, Nov 16, 2003

LOT 4

The Minotaurs German, circa 1550. Fine pre-balance spring, single-hand, hour-striking tambour-shaped pendant watch, later custom-built iron movement with stackfreed, foliot and hog's bristle regulator.

C. Drum-shaped, hinged top and fixed bottom, the front pierced with 12 openings for the hours with Minotaur's masks, pierced and engraved center, pierced band and base, the band with scrolls and animals, the back with masks and figures in the "grotesque" manner typical of the Renaissance. D. Gilt metal, hinged to the case, outer 12-hour Roman chapter ring, engraved inner quarter-hour divisions and innermost chapter with Arabic 24-hour division with German "Z" for numeral "2", calibrated from 13 to Z4, twelve touch pins in the outermost ring, pinhole for setting the striking, the center with Moresque pattern. Single blued steel "tulip" hand. M. 47 mm, iron, pinned to the dial, full plate, four turned baluster pillars, open mainspring attached to the plate, C-shaped stackfreed, 4-wheel train, verge escapement with foliot and hog's bristle mounted on a pivoted lever, small iron S-shaped cock secured by a screw, iron striking train driven by open mainspring fixed to a post mounted on the inside of the back plate, count wheel on the back plate driven by four pins mounted on the end of the first striking wheel, striking on a bell of rectangular cross-section mounted with a screw to the bottom of the case,striking with a single hammer.Diam. 60 mm.