Antique European Filigree: Some 17th Century German Clocks embellished with silver filigree.

An Astronomical Table Clock.

Jeremias Pfaff the Younger d.1702 or the Elder, d. 1677.

Augsburg.

(updated 18 October 2023)

Seventeenth Century.

in the Grunes Gewolbe, Dresden.

29,0 x 29,0 x 31,3 cms.

First noted in an inventory of the Kunstkammer in 1732.

Transferred to the Grunes Gewolbe in 1832.

Jeremias Pfaff the Elder was born around 1618 in Augsburg. Jeremiah became a master watchmaker on May 29, 1639 . Jeremias the Younger his son was born in 1651 and became a master watchmaker in Augsburg in the year that his father died.

Jürgen Abeler states that both father and son created numerous clocks, including tower clocks and a variety of table clocks, including one with an atlas, which is in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart.

An early Pfaff clock, signed and dated 1643, was in the Gershom Parkington Memorial Collection, Bury St Edmunds, England.

Image from a Lange and Sohne watch advert.

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The Caspar Hoffman Clock.

at the Museum Hessen Kassel.

https://datenbank.museum-kassel.de/226695/0/0/0/s14/0/100/objekt.html

Inventory No.: APK U 75

Caspar Hoffmann.

Circa 1680

Augsburg

Dimensions: 140 x 82 x 60 cm

The filigree work has distinct similarities with the techniques used on the Pfaff Clock above.

Catalog text: this was translated automatically - this will need editing in due course.

The Augsburg ceremonial clock was a focal point in the centre of the watch room of the Kunsthaus, which Landgrave Carl set up from 1696.

The councillors Uffenbach from Frankfurt mention them in their description of a visit in 1709: "In the middle there was a very large artificial clockwork on one foot, like a pyramid, whereupon many people could be seen. “In addition to the time and date, the clock was decorated with moving figures. Four putti, a Mercury figure and a nest full of eagles could turn around themselves. On the railing of the top floor, a ball apparently ran infinitely in a circle and in the body of the bottom floor there is a musical play. The watch was able to play four different, dance-like melodies.

How the clock got into Carl's collection is unclear, you can only rule out a commissioned work with certainty.

These were usually equipped with Carl's lettering or an image program related to his usual allegorical representations of Minerva and Hercules. However, neither is the case here. It remains to be seen whether it could have been a diplomatic gift or a targeted purchase. In any case, Carl valued the Augsburg silver works and bought objects again and again between 1700 and 1711.

( R. Giesemann, 2018 ).

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The Victoria and Albert Museum 17th Century Table Clock

The case by Hans Coraedt Breghtel of the Hague.

The movement made by Adriaen van den Bergh.

The workmanship here should be compared with that on the Khalili Casket and The Hermitage William III Writing box illustrated above

Breghtel was born in Nuremburg in 1609. By 1640 he had established himself as a silversmith in The Hague and by 1645 he was supplying the Statholder's Court. His widow Maria Steenwegge continued to manage the workshop after Breghtel's death in 1675, with the help of her sons-in-law.

Breghtel's three daughters each married goldsmiths, two were based in The Hague, Adriaen van Hoecke and Otto van Hesselt and one in Berlin (Samuel Blesendorff). Adriaen van Hoecke was still using Breghtel's mark two years after his master's death. He married Johanna Breghtel in 1659 and took over Breghtel's workshop in 1682.

Images here are included to show the style of filigree used on these various caskets (illustrated above) that was also used on the Breghtel Clock, particularly that employed around the base of the cupola and around the Signs of the Zodiac Plaques.

Height 91.6 cms.

Maximum, base width: 42.2cm

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The chapter below was lifted in its entirety from

https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3287492

Hans Coenraet Brechtel (1609-1675) was undoubtedly one of the most important goldsmiths in The Hague in the 17th century. His career began with an object that may be regarded as one of the highlights of his career in terms of size, design and technical execution: the nearly 80 cm high silver-gilt goblet that the Winter Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia gave to the burgomasters of Leiden to thank them for the accommodation and education of her children.

The queen is depicted in triumph on the lid, which also features a plaque with the royal arms of Bohemia. Surmounting a base decorated with sea creatures and as its stem a crouching satyr, the bowl is completely chased with sharply defined and lively auricular motifs. The decoration comprises cartouches around twelve oval compartments featuring punched depictions of insects, the elements, the senses and allegories of love, lust and transience. Particularly these refined punched engravings will have attracted attention. Brechtel signed the goblet with his name and the date. He came from a highly educated family of scientists, teachers and calligraphers living in Nuremberg, and was trained there by an as yet unknown goldsmith. He probably also trained in Augsburg, as is evident from the German design of this goblet and his technical skills. Like other silversmiths from Augsburg, in the 1630s Brechtel moved to the Netherlands with its fastgrowing economy. In the court city of The Hague his virtuosity was immediately recognised, as can be deduced from the commissions he received from the Bohemian court and that of the stadtholder, the States-General, foreign diplomats and princes. The large silver diaper basket for Prince Willem II and Princess Mary Stuart, the four enormous wall lights – a diplomatic gift to Russia from 1647 – and the gold cup for Frederick III of Denmark from 1653 illustrate his craftsmanship and versatility. Alongside auricular motifs other decorative motifs were introduced, such as flowers and children at play. A print of three putti with glasses, signed by Brechtel but originally designed by Guido Reni, was applied on the Danish gold cup. Brechtel continued to apply auricular ornament in various ways well into the 17th century: in cartouches with strictly symmetrical lines of volutes (diaper baskets, the gold goblet and dish from Leiden); as a way of combining several objects with auricular features (guild shields); or in an elegant amalgamation of auricular volutes and acanthus leaf (wall lights for Russia). Technically Brechtel excelled in casting (the Winter Queen’s goblet and the Danish gold goblet), in openwork ornament (baskets and flasks), in wire work or filigree, and in pointillé or punching. Although various silversmiths from The Hague (Andries Grill, Gerrit Vuystinck) produced work with auricular ornament of a similarly high quality, they never managed to achieve the quality of the pointillé decorations on the goblets of the Winter Queen and Frederick III. Brechtel was able to profile himself as a virtuoso goldsmith who could compete with the great masters of his native region. His name was so well known that his workshop continued for another five years after his death under his son-in-law Adriaen van Hoecke.