Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 49

?Cross Beat Monstrance Clock? Casper II Buschmann, Augsburg, circa 1590. Highly important ebony, gilt brass, enamel and lapis lazuli astronomical, hour striking, pre-balance spring, single-hand clock with cross-beat escapement, days of the week, date, manual perpetual calendar, and phases and age of the moon.

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C. Designed as a monstrance, ebony on gilt brass feet, gilt brass panels to the sides and the back finely pierced and engraved with scrolling foliage, the back hinged, molded base with a drawer for the key with a handle in the form of a gilt bronze figure of a king with a scepter in his right hand for indication of day of week, frame for the days of the week dial with lapis lazuli decoration on each side, above the main dial within a molded frame and columns on each side, four gilt brass finials supported by lapis lazuli brackets, domed top with lapis lazuli brackets on each side and four finely pierced and engraved gilt brass panels, surmounted by a gilt bronze statue of a woman in classical dress holding a mirror. D. Mounted on rectangular gilt brass plate engraved with floral motifs, applied brass ring with radial Roman numerals and fleur-de-lis half-hour divisions, inner silver 30-day date ring with radial Arabic numerals with ?Z? for numeral ?2?, innermost phases of the moon in acircular aperture and its age in a sector aperture, outermost silver manual perpetual calendar ring with months and corresponding number of days with a blued steel pointer at the top. Blued steel ?poker? hand, gilt brass ?poker? hand for the calendar. Below, separate silver ring set on a gilt brass plate divided into seven day sectors, each with a figure representing a governing planet, all in champlevé enamel. M. Rectangular with additional small section for the date mechanism, 95 x 63 mm, days of the week section 40 x 37 mm, gilt brass, turned baluster pillars, fusee and gut, short three-wheel train, cross beat escapement with two steel-rod foliots terminated with silver winged cherub masks, set in separate removable bracket mounted to irregular pierced and engraved gilt plate, gilt eagle-shaped cock, elaborately pierced and engraved gilt brass mainspring set-up click, finely engraved count wheel set on the back plate, striking from fixed barrel, four-wheel train with heavy rectangulr governor, striking on a bell on the top. Hour hand mounted on a large steel wheel driven off 28-tooth steel wheel mounted on the fusee arbor, the calendar train 10-40/4-60, the moon train similar but with the last wheel of 59 teeth driven off the same 4-leaf lantern pinion. The days of the week driven off the same 28-tooth steel wheel set on the fusee via an intermediate wheel,Signed on the back plate in the typical Buschmann manner ?·CA·BV·? (for Casper Buschmann).Dim. Height 34 cm, width 13.5 at the center, 10.5 at the base.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3 - 22*
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

The present clock has remained within the same German family for generations. The invention of the cross-beat escapement was the first serious improvement in the accuracy of mechanical timepieces. It had far-reaching scientific consequences. The verge escapement, especially before the invention of the balance spring, was not sufficiently accurate for scientific and astronomical purposes. For this reason, Jost Bürgi, a celebrated clockmaker of Wilhelm IV of Hesse, invented the cross beat escapement around 1580. It had less recoil and was considerably more accurate. Bürgi became so famous that in 1603 Emperor Rudolf II asked Landgrave Moritz, the successor of Wilhelm IV, to allow Bürgi to come to the imperial court. After Bürgi, a few other Augsburg clockmakers used the escapement: Hans Buschmann, Matthäus Hallaicher, Nikolaus Planckh, and Casper II Buschmann. Clocks fitted with cross-beat escapements became known as ?Prague clocks?, as the imperial court was in Prague before moving to Vienna in 1620. Extremely rare, such clocks very seldom appear on the market. They remained so extraordinary and rare that, as late as 1734, Jean-Baptiste Dutertre of Paris presented a double pendulum clock based on the cross-beat escapement to the French Academy of Sciences. The scientific consequences of the application of the cross-beat escapement to clocks were tremendous. Bürgi?s clocks fitted with cross-beat escapement helped Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler to make their astronomical discoveries. These were the most accurate timekeepers in existence until the invention of the pendulum. The present clock is one of the earliest known to have been built outside Bürgi?s workshop. It is the only known Casper Buschmann clock with cross-beat escapement. Monstrance clocks by Casper II Buschmann are very rare. Only one other one is known; it is in the collection of the Staatlicher Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon in Dresden. It is, however, not as elaborate as the present clock, and does not have a cross-beat escapement. ?Cross Beat Monstrance Clock? Buschmann?s clients included Wilhelm V of Bavaria and Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria. In 1637 Countess Claudia of Hapsburg, a member of the family of Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, asked Johan Buschmann (c. 1600 ? 1662) to repair the ?Palace? automaton made by his grandfather Casper II in 1582. Only one of Casper II?s children is known. Casper III (1563?1629) worked with his father and subsequently inherited his father?s business before the end of the 1500?s, by which time Casper II seems to have retired. Casper III was apparently quite respected by his peers, for upon his father?s death in 1613, he was elected Master of the metalworkers? guild. Casper II is the only member of the Buschmann family whose work has survived. Most examples are in museums: the Adler Planetarium in Chicago has a spectacular astronomical table clock, circa 1580. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has the famous ?Palace? automaton made in 1582. The Greenwich Maritime Museum has his astronomical table clock with astrolabe, made circa 1585. The Musée International d?Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds has a very important watch with Limoges enamel, made by Casper II. The present clock is also worthy of a place in one of the world?s leading museums.