Home > Auction >  paintings, furniture and works of art, jewellery, sculptures, bronzes >  Lot.168 Single-handed Renaissance tower clock. Stamped "NS" (Nikolaus Schmidt), Augsburg, about 1615. h. 24 cm. With hour strike on bell. The work is stamped "NS" (Nikolaus Schmidt ca. 1576-1625). Fire-gilded copper case with finely profiled corner columns on an ornamentally decorated plinth. High, open bell under a superimposed dome with pointed end decorated with foliage. Dial ring with Roman numerals, push buttons and Arabic 24-hour division, central alarm disc and cut-out iron hand. Finely engraved, removable side panels with ornaments and floral decoration. Iron pillar movement with verge escapement in brass and iron. Walking and striking mechanism arranged one behind the other with two snails, chain and gut string. Barrel for alarm clock on bell. The turret was probably rebuilt in the 18th century to a verge with front pendulum. Rest. Erg. provenance: important southern German watch collection in longstanding private ownership. Acquired in December 1991 in the auction house Klöter/Dätzingen, auction 73. Cf. G. H. Baillie, Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World, Volume 1, p. 285 and J. Abeler, Master Watchmakers, pp. 447 and 561.