AN EARLY LARGE HOUR, QUARTER AND MINUTE STRIKING ASTRONOMICAL TABLE CLOCK, GEORGE KINDSVATTER, GERMAN, CIRCA 1630

the principal dial with outer reversible gilt-brass six month dial engraved with the Saints' days, the second ring of silver engraved 2 x twelve hours and with minutes and quarters, the third ring of gilt brass engraved from I to 24 for the Italian Hours, enclosing overlapping silver and blued steel sectors for indicating the varying hours of day and night, the lower corners with subsidiary silver and enameled dials, on the left for day of the week with ruling deity and on the right for the twelve signs of the Zodiac with central gilt dial for setting the position of the sun in the zodiac and thereby the day and the night shutters, the upper corners with further small dials, the right hand one for recording the Dominical Letter, the left calibrated 1 to 12, the reverse with central gilt astrolabe dial contained within a silvered 2 x twelve hour ring with four subsidiary dials in the corners, the two lower ones for setting and controlling the alarm, the upper ones for regulation and setting the strike to twelve or twenty-four hour sequence, the sides with strike recording dials for the quarters and the hours, the center of each dial with an engraved scene, three train gilded posted fusee movement with pinned barrel caps, striking the minutes, quarters and hours on three bells, the case surmounted by a crowned lion rampant with an orb, three tiers of baluster pillars containing the bells, a switch for the minute striking on the upper tier, outscrolled corbels on the upper corners, the main body engraved with finely drawn leaf scrolls inhabited by birds, flower-engraved pilasters on the corners, the plinths engraved with allegories of eight cardinal virtues, the interior of one side signed Georg Kindsvatter, the possibly replaced ogee molded gilt-copper repoussé base decorated on each side with allegories of the Four Seasons, raised on lion couchant feet. George Kindsvatter is recorded as working in Nuremberg during the first half of the 17th-century.